The internationally celebrated Gambian musician was away in Casamance for a musical concert when the incident happened. It was suspected to have been caused by power upsurge. An alarm was raised by people who noticed smoke billowing from one of the houses moments after power was restored by Nawec.
Confirming the incident yesterday, Oumie Fatty-Kuyateh, one of Jaliba Kuyateh’s wives, said: “It started at around 6pm local time after Nawec restored the power. We noticed smoke coming out from one of the house and this quickly spread to other houses.
“Most of the household property had been destroyed, but thank God nobody died. My husband is currently out of town but when news reached him, the first thing he asked was whether there was any casualty. He was relieved to hear that no one died or had been injured by the fire.”
She said the response of neighbours and fire-fighters was swift, which has prevented the fire from spreading to other houses. The youths, it was gathered, helped the fire-fighters in putting out the fire as they also tried to salvage some of the property. While some of them succeeded, many others did not.
Latest mishap
Meanwhile, the fire outbreak is the latest mishap to have struck Jaliba Kuyateh in as many weeks following the death of his drummer and long-serving member of Kumareh Band, Nyaw Nying. News of the untimely death of the sensational drummer broke on January 29 throwing the band’s followers and the larger public into mourning. Nyaw Nying was instrumental in adding the Mbalax rhythm to the kora pop that Jaliba Kuyateh has invented.
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