Tens of business owners in Nairobi were left counting losses following an explosion that occurred in Nairobi’s Ngara Estate on Sunday morning.
The traders noted that they lost property worth millions of shillings which was destroyed in the gas explosion that engulfed the area.
The fire, according to residents who spoke to the media, started from a food store following the failure of an adjacent power transformer that sparked the fires.
John Maich, a garage owner, was dealt a major loss following the inferno that burnt down cars left for repair by his customers at his business yard in the estate.
‘’A gas cylinder exploded and that other cylinders followed suit falling on cars. That's how the cars here got burnt even though we tried saving others,’’ Maich, a garage owner, told the media.
The businessman narrated that his team tried to save some vehicles except only for those with security features such as the cut offs. The cars were valued at millions of shillings.
Another business oner noted that his fruits delivery business was obliterated leaving him with no source of income.
‘’I deliver fruits and now my business is all consumed, everything of mine is gone,’’ Joseph Chege, a business owner, told the press.
When the blaze erupted, witnesses revealed that firefighters from the disaster department of Nairobi County failed to respond on time to help put down the fire. An incident which the residents said would have helped avert the situation.
‘’Fire fighters came two hours later and told us that they were not aware of the incident,’’ Timothy Meme revealed.
The fire started at a food store before spreading to a nearby gas storage facility leaving only shells of empty cylinders and other property it razed down.
The fire incident from the gas explosion raised concerns over the safety of gas storage facilities near residential areas following a wave of similar incidents within Nairobi county.
‘’I would like to challenge the government to look into the issue of gas storage, because even today it is the same that has started the fire and not the garage here,’’ Maich added.
The incident came a few months after a gas explosion occurred in February in Mradi Embakasi that claimed at least three lives and left over 80 people injured.
There have been calls for the government to regulate the gas storage facility concerns in order to ensure the safety of city residents.
