Scores of city businesspersons yesterday counted losses estimated to be in millions of francs after fire gutted a building in Kigali’s major trading centre, commonly known as Quartier Matheus.

When The New Times arrived at the scene at 15:50pm, an hour after the fire broke out, thick fireballs and plumes of smoke could still be seen.

Bystanders and business owners speculated that the fire could have been started by a short circuit.

At least four fire fighting trucks were at the scene, with Police and city officials fighting to restore order.

Corneille Kamugunga, a trader who runs a secretarial services shop 30 metres from the building, told this paper that when he heard commotion outside his shop, he jumbled and ran out, only to see the next building on fire.

Fire fighters

"The owners surely are devastated because this is a big loss. There is always a lot of business going on here as trucks offload merchandise here every week. The loss in that shop can’t be below Rwf50 million and this could even be too little,” Kamugunga said.

"The first, smaller truck arrived after 40 to 50 minutes. It couldn’t do much. Other trucks then started arriving later,” Kamugunga said, adding "another problem is that, almost everyone here doesn’t have a fire extinguisher.”

Hycinthe Bayizayire, another trader, said: "When we noticed the fire quickly spreading, we grabbed our hand bags and ran out of our shops. We had no time for our merchandise. Lucky enough, our shops have not been affected.”

Rahab Imanishimwe, a kitchen ware dealer, said she saw several ladies fall and possibly get injured during the stampede as people were scampering out of the burning building.

"Most of us don’t have insurance for our goods. Such fires really leave people in a bad shape. The loss will certainly be big for the owner,” she said.

"Most of these shops are old but when, in the recent past, they were refurbished, people could make extra partitions and this means more people in one building and, thus, more congestion which could partly be responsible for this,” Kamugunga said.

Police denies delayed response

Police spokesperson in Kigali City, Modeste Mbabazi, told The New Times that contrary to what witnesses said, the Force did its best to respond fast and was at the scene by 3pm.

"We immediately coordinated and in not more than 30 minutes we were on the scene trying to put out the fire. Surely, considering the traffic jam at that time of the day, we did our best,” Mbabazi said.

He said fire fighters managed to completely put out the fire at 6pm, noting that putting out fire in the congested Quartier Matheus area is difficult a task given that most shops, among other reasons, hold mixed merchandise, especially with oils, clothes and other quickly combustible material mixed up.

"These items should be separated. When such situations arise, putting the fire out would be a little bit easier. Another thing is, as a request, if only water hydrants would be distributed in all possible corners of the city, this could ease the work of fire fighters.”

Mbabazi also said buildings in the Quartier Matheus area were built in a complicated manner such that accessing the backyard is difficult when putting out fire.

After putting out the fire, Police will now fast-track investigations on the exact cause and will also try to estimate the value of the lost property, he said. Yesterday’s fire happened two days after fire gutted Rubavu Prison, killing five people and injuring 60 others.