A night time fire gutted the offices of Igihe Limited, a multimedia news organisation that publishes Igihe.com, located in Ndamage Building in the Central Business District. No one was harmed in the incident. According to eyewitnesses, the fire destroyed the entire fourth floor that houses the newsroom, the head office, marketing department and their stores. “The gutted area was the centre of our operations; it had the stores where all equipment including cameras were kept and the audiovisual studio,” said Philbert Girinema, the Chief Editor of Igihe, speaking to The New Times. Also destroyed was their video production department called Storykast which was on the same floor. According to Girinema, the fire broke out at around 9pm on Sunday and frantic effort to salvage the equipment in the building were frustrated by the fact that this is the last floor on the building. Girinema said that Police were on scene a few minutes after the fire outbreak and they tried to use hoses to put it out from the front – right below the T2000 building – but it did not work. They then went around and accessed the building from Downtown Bus Park. Girinema said that when the fire broke out, two of their employees were in office but they immediately evacuated and are unharmed. Other sections of the media organization – the audio studio and the video studio located on the second and third floors respectively were however not harmed. A statement released by Igihe Ltd on Monday morning indicated that the cause of the fire was still unknown “however, the Rwandan police has started investigations on the matter.” In the statement, the news outlet promised to continue serving their readership and all their partners. According to Girinema, many of their employees were already working virtually, meaning there will be minimal interruption in their operations save for the equipment that has been lost. Girinema said that currently, they are working on getting a new home saying that the current premises have been destroyed beyond repair.
