Police have issued an update after a fire engulfed and consumed goods worth millions of shillings along the Eastleigh area’s General Waruinge road.
Speaking on Friday, February 7, 2025, Starehe sub-County police commander Wilson Morayah indicated that nothing was salvaged from the shops.
“Today at around 11:30 am, we received information that a fire had erupted in one of the shops along General Waruinge, just opposite the Pumwani General Hospital. Officers rushed to the scene and members of the public had assembled in an attempt to put out the fire using locally available materials,” Morayah said.
Vibrant fire hydrant
The police boss equally revealed that while the building had a vibrant fire hydrant, it was impossible to salvage anything from the two shops on fire.
“The building on fire had a vibrant fire hydrant but the fire was so fierce that they could not succeed,” he indicated.
The police commander equally observed that local areal leaders had mobilized the Nairobi County fire department, the National Youth Service (NYS) fire department, the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) fire department and disaster management who all arrived at the scene of the inferno.
No life lost
“No life was lost but property worth millions of money was consumed by the fire. We could not salvage anything within the two shops because of the extent of the fire,” Morayah added.
The inferno which affected a tyre shop in the area resulted in thick smoke which is suspected to have impeded efforts by the fire departments to contain the inferno.
Several commercial establishments in the building including an adjacent gym were significantly damaged from the fire which took hours to out despite the coordinated efforts from different emergency response teams.
“Fires have become more frequent in residential areas and across Nairobi. Last month, the county government hired 700 new firefighters and purchased new firefighting equipment, but we still need to do more to address this crisis,” Eastleigh North MCA Ahmed Khadar said.
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