Three hotels and five cottages were on Tuesday evening burnt to the ground and property worth millions destroyed at Diani, in Kwale County.
The fire, which gutted down property belonging to Neptune chain of hotels, started in Palm restaurant and quickly spread due to the strong winds in the area.
According to the restaurant management, the inferno then spread to neighbouring Paradise and Village Hotels which are owned by the same company.
“The fire spread so fast and it was so hard to put out as it moved from one hotel to another leaving us scrambling for what we could salvage,” explained the hotel's manager Jackson Kifoto.
Efforts to battle the raging fire were hampered by its intensity and it took more than two hours for the fire brigade to contain the situation.
During the incident, 53 visitors who were being accommodated in the hotels lost their property. Luckily, there were no casualties reported.
Confirming the incident, acting Kwale County Commissioner Mwangi Kahiro assured that the authorities would provide enough security to tourists who were displaced from the burnt lodges.
“We have provided transport to evacuate the visitors to other hotels and also ensure that they are safe from any acts of theft by people who might take advantage of the situation. We will stay here until when all visitors have been evacuated and then we will know the next course of action,” Mr Kahiro promised.
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