Property valued at millions of shillings was destroyed in a fierce fire that gutted a supermarket in Ruiru town, Kiambu County on Monday morning August 26, 2024.
The fast-spreading fire, which is said to have started at around 5 am, razed down a large section of the supermarket and destroyed items valued at millions of shillings.
According to residents, it all started with a power outage within the populous town when a generator was powered at the supermarket to restore lights.
The noise generator is however said to have begun producing uncertain smoke before it exploded triggering extensive fire from the shop’s kitchen to other sections of the heavily stocked supermarket.
According to residents, it took an hour for firefighters from both Kiambu town and Thika to arrive at the scene to help extinguish the ferocious fire that had already destroyed property leaving the owners counting huge losses.
They decried that the local government is facing a lot of challenges when it comes to response time and suppression of all forms of fire outbreaks and other emergencies occurring in the town since the town relies on help from Thika and Kiambu town stations.
Construction of an additional fire station in Ruiru, they said, would mean that more sub-counties would have firefighting substations hence making services easily available to the locals.
“We are asking the local government to expand its fire services to Ruiru town. We have suffered over the years as in most cases, our property is destroyed by fire before extinguishers arrive from other parts of the county. It is time that the county considers deploying a fire vehicle and other equipment in the populous Ruiru town,” Eliud Nyongo, a resident said.
The station, he said, will help them to among other things respond to numerous emergencies, which include fires, road traffic accidents, pit rescues, fuel spillage, landslides, and building collapses among others.
Ruiru DCIO Jeremiah Dubai who spoke to journalists at the scene confirmed the incident saying that investigations have commenced to establish the cause of the fire and the actual damage that happened.
“We were alerted about the fire outbreak at the Supermarket at around 5 am. We mobilized teams to put out the fire and by good luck, we have managed to douse it off. We are now quantifying the damages caused. No one has been injured from the incident,” Dubai stated.
Dubai called on residents to continue being vigilant but also rooted for the establishment of a fire station to help put out fires and respond to other emergencies.
