A devastating fire has left numerous individuals displaced, as it consumed an entire 27-room wooden structure in Limbe. The incident, which took place at Bakoko behind Limbe Regional Hospital on Monday, February 19, has impacted over 50 people, according to the landlord, who confirmed that all rooms were occupied.
The fire broke out around 11:30 a.m., with residents managing to rescue only a handful of belongings from the blazing structure. Fortunately, there were no reported human casualties or injuries. The charred remnants of the house were captured in images shared with MMI.
The victims expressed frustration, stating that it took them more than 30 minutes to combat the fire, and surprisingly, the firefighting intervention unit in Limbe did not respond.
Agbor Nkongho, one of the house occupants, attributed the fire to an electrical circuit malfunction originating from his neighbor. Recounting the incident, Nkongho mentioned hearing someone scream about the fire while he was inside the house. “Most of my things were destroyed. Some neighbors said they did not recover anything from the house because they were not around,” Nkongho lamented. Despite his attempts to extinguish the flames with sand and water, the fire quickly engulfed the house. Nkongho added, “Had it been the firefighters who intervened, part of the building could have been rescued.”
On the other hand, Ashu Beloved, an eyewitness, claimed that the fire resulted from a gas bottle explosion. The estimated damage, according to Nkongho, exceeds 20 million FCFA.
This incident highlights a recurring issue of inadequate emergency response units in the region. Notably, last week in Buea, a house collapsed, resulting in fatalities and injuries, yet there was no emergency response. Similarly, in Limbe, despite having a firefighting unit, residents struggled for over 30 minutes to control the fire without any assistance from an emergency response unit.
