Property worth millions of shillings was reduced to ashes after fire gutted several businesses and residential houses in Haraka trading centre, Kinangop.
Resident Susan Wangui said the fire started from one the shops before spreading to the adjoining houses.
She said a loud explosion was heard from one of the shop on Wednesday morning, before the whole building was engulfed in fire.
“We suspect a gas exploded in one of the shops. The fire burned shops and houses as we watched from a distance,” Wangui said.
She said lack of a firefighting engine in Kinangop constituency slowed their efforts to extinguish the fire and save property.
Kinangop police boss Yawa Chome said investigations have started to establish the cause of the fire.
“No one was injured during the inferno but nothing was salvaged from the shops and residential houses due to the intensity of the fire,” he said.
Meanwhile, police in Naivasha are holding six secondary school students over a fire incident in their institution.
The girls from Mixed Boarding Academy on the Nairobi-Nakuru highway were arrested after a fire razed a dormitory in unclear circumstances.
The students who are being held at Naivasha police station.
A police source, who declined to be named, said the students were in form two and three.
The source said they were adversely mentioned by other students during investigations.
The officer said during the incident, four cubicles in the dormitory were burnt down before firefighters from Naivasha subcounty offices contained the fire.
“The fire started in one of the cubicles and spread fast. It burned beds and other personal property belonging to the students,” the source said.
The officer said the six would be charged at the Naivasha law courts.
“We expect to charge the six in court with arson. Investigations are going on to see if there were any other student involved,” the source said.