24/11/2019
*Tengbe Town Fire Outbreak Leaves Dozens Homeless*Flood Invades*
*Bonthe Island*
By Moisa Sallu Keikura
On my arrival in Freetown from Accra, Ghana after participating at the ECOWAS funded Disaster Risk Reduction Training Workshop, I received a report about a fire outbreak at Tengbe Town around the vicinity of the market.
The fire reportedly broke out on the night of Thursday21st November, 2019, leaving dozens of residents homeless and destroying properties worth millions of Leones.
Close to sixty houses (mostly zinc structures and a few cement block structures) were razed following what eye witnesses described as a fire started by a naked candle. No death was reported although there were a few injuries. The NFF and Police journalist are currently conducting investigations into the cause of the fire.
It was reported that the National Fire Force (NFF) was called to the scene but they were unable to put out the raging inferno partly because access to the affected area was very difficult.
However, following the disaster, the Sierra Leone Red Cross and several NGOs dealing with such misfortunes are currently providing relief and other support for the affected people.
Fire accidents come under the purview of the Office of National Security (ONS) which in the wake of this latest disaster now needs to devise strategies to ensure that whenever houses (zinc or otherwise) are being out up, provision for access roads must be paramount and obligatory in order to ensure that, rescue services have easy access in the event of any emergency.
In another development, reports from Bonthe Island speak of daily floods affecting the people in that part of the country. Residents are complaining that they go to bed at night safely but when they wake up in the morning, their homes are surrounded by water. How the water flows into the island and what can be done to mitigate any future major flooding incident in this part of the country is what the ONS should now be working on. However, no
