An entrepreneur is counting losses after a fire burnt down a business premise in Hamza Estate along Jogoo Road, Nairobi County on Friday morning, February 11.
Furniture and other property of unknown value were destroyed in the showroom along the busy road.
Witnesses claimed that the inferno broke out in the furniture showroom before spreading to adjacent business premises. Police officers responded to the alarm raised by area residents and secured the scene, as they waited for the fire brigade to respond.
The officers temporarily closed a section of Jogoo road, causing a traffic snarl-up. This was to allow two fire engines that had been dispatched from the Nairobi County Fire Station to quell the raging fire.
Business owners, with the help of motorists and residents, tried to salvage some of the furniture in the show rooms.
The police launched investigations to establish the cause of the fire after and are expected to issue a comprehensive report.
The Jogoo Road incident is the second fire reported in Nairobi in the past week. On February 6, a fire broke out in a go down along Mombasa road at the Namanga interchange.
In a separate incident, a building on Mfangano Street in the Nairobi Central Business District (CBD) was also engulfed in fire on February 1, destroying property of unknown value.
Three days prior to the incident, officials from the National Disaster Management Unit (NDMU) and the Nairobi City County Fire Department urged property owners to conduct regular safety drills to test their readiness to battle future fires.
They noted that it was important to conduct at least one safety drill annually to analyse their preparedness in the event of emergencies.
NMDU Chief Administration Officer, Cyrus Maina, added that conducting drills helps promote awareness to the occupants, the members of the public, and even the responders.
