Authorities in the City of Kigali were yesterday left red-faced, as far as fire fighting preparedness is concerned, when a fire broke out in Gikondo’s industrial area.

The Gikondo incident is the second fire outbreak in the city in a space of five days and the third countrywide in a week.

According to witnesses, the fire broke out at about 4pm at a maize flour mill.

The exact cause of the fire is yet to be established, although workers at the plant blamed it on electric fault.

No lives were lost or injuries sustained, but property estimated in millions of francs was destroyed.

Kigali City Police spokesperson Modeste Mbabazi said after being informed about the fire at 5pm, Police got there in not more than 20 minutes, with three fire fighting trucks and officers for crowd control.

"Kigali International Airport and Rwanda Defence Forces trucks also arrived at the scene shortly after to assist in firefighting efforts,” Mbabazi said.

He said the fire is suspected to have been caused by an electrical fault, adding that investigations were ongoing.

When The New Times arrived at the scene at 5:40pm, fire fighters from Kigali International Airport were still at work, while the others had run out of water.

Public lend their hand

Civilians at the scene joined in the efforts, using water jerrycans and buckets in an attempt to stop the fire from spreading and salvage property.

The structure, built mostly with iron sheets, was razed to the ground and the machines looked irreparable.

Police and military officials cordoned off the area and could be seen controlling the curious crowd keen to get close to the scene.

Christian Rukundo, a bystander and a business operator in the area, told this paper that Police response was faster than expected and seemed in control of the situation as opposed to fears that they were poorly equipped or lacking in capacity.

The Gikondo fire incident comes after new instructions and regulations to enforce existing fire safety laws in the country were issued last week.

The regulations were published in the Official Gazette last week, and, yesterday, government issued a six-month ultimatum to all public structures to abide by the regulations.

According to the regulations and standards, public building or other public place should within the next six months have, at a minimum; a fire alarm system with an alarm bell on each floor; smoke detectors and sprinklers; a fire extinguisher every 50 metres on each floor; hose reels on each floor; closed circuit television cameras and a control room; and a lightning arrester or rod all which were lacking at the burn milling plant. 

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