Fire razes 30 stalls in refugee camp

Property worth thousands of shillings was on Sunday night destroyed by fire that broke out at the  Dagahaley refugee camp,  17km from  Dadaab town. The fire, which was said to have been caused by a generator that went off,  started at 7pm razing more than 30 stalls. The  wind made it difficult to put out the fire that went on for five hours. there are no fire-fighting machines in Dadaab.Refugees tried to put out the fire using buckets of water to no avail. “Initial reports showed that the fire was caused by a generator," said Dadaab DC Albert Kimathi. “There must have been an electric fault which resulted in the fire. Investigations have been started to know what exactly happened."

He added: “lucky enough there was no life lost in this incident. We also thank God that the fire did not break out in the refugee settlements. It could however been disastrous had it occurred there due to congestion of the house,” said the DC when contacted over the phone. He added that the DSG had met “ in a bid to come up with ways of assisting those affected by the incident,”.

A refugee who spoke to the star on phone blamed the KNHCR  “for not taking action to put off the fire despite having the fire fighting machines”. It is very unfortunate that we had to watch as our had earned properties that we have struggled to get for years   go in smoke in a matter of hours, KNHCR who have many fire fighting machines just dint care coming to our aid, for reasons known better to them,” said a refugee from the Dagahaley camp.