Building materials worth millions of shillings were on Monday evening razed down at a construction site in Maralal town Samburu County.
The fire was caused by a herder who was harvesting grass for his livestock while smoking.
“A cigarette stub burnt in dried up grass and cause the fire,” said a worker at the site.
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Resident's efforts to put off the fire did not yield fruits.
Water vendors in Maralal town joined the residents in trying to put off the fierce fire using two water booster trucks.
“We don’t have fire brigades and a fire engine in this county, we are not getting help as the fire continues to escalate,” said Etes Amu, a resident of Maralal town.
“The neighbours of this construction site are living in anxiety as they do not know what will happen to their homes at night,” said Jeremiah Igwanya, another resident.
The residents say that the fire could have been put off if the county had firefighting emergencies.
“We were unable to put off this fire at an early stage due to lack of facilities, we might have saved further destruction could there have been a fire engine,” said a resident.
The residents urged the government to put in place measures that would enable it to deal with fire outbreaks in all towns within the county.
Amu urged the county government to buy fire engines on standby in all major urban centres in the county to deal with fire outbreaks.
“We also need trained staff that can help us in fighting the fire because we are just using local non-skilled people to put off this fire in vain,” Igwanya said.