2024-09-29 01:12:53
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A fire broke out in Enta north, not far from the market, this Wednesday, September 25, 2024. It concerns a 4-room building and its annexes which were invaded by the flames. Furniture, clothing, goods and a large sum of money in foreign currency went up in smoke.
Marthe Kolié, an eyewitness to the events, returns to the incident. “The fire took place in the 12 hour bands like that. I was cooking outside. I had the old woman outside and the children with our aunt were in the room. So, I came home, I was in the toilet. Coming out now, I saw the fire. We shouted, now the children and the aunt have gone outside. Now the fire has burned the whole house, especially in the bedroom. Nothing came out. Everything was burned. There was a noise though. There was a noise. Because I was there (corridor editor’s note), I wanted to go into the room and I heard noises. Now I saw that the house was already on fire, it was too late. So we went out. The neighbors came to help,” she said.
No loss of human life, but the damage is significant. “There was no one there, so there were no injuries or deaths. There are four rooms here. There was the bed, the mattress, the clothes, everything was burned, along with the passports containing money. There were 5 or 6 passports with the money in euros plus my mom’s merchandise, she had sent that. So the money that we looked like, it was all in our fund that was there. Everything was burned, more than 2 million and a few Guinean francs.”
It took the help of the neighborhood to avoid the worst. “It was the neighbors who came to help now. To prevent the fire from taking over the entire house, the neighbors came to help. They pierced the sheets, no one could get inside. There was too much smoke, no one could get in. Now the neighbors who were there, they came to help. They were the ones who pierced the ceilings with the metal sheets so that they could put in water. Well, the neighbors have already done their best. They (firefighters, editor’s note) came after the neighbors”
Ms. Camara Aicha Seck believes that this fire was due to a short circuit. “I would say that it’s a short circuit, because of the poor quality of the cables they sell us, it’s not us, that’s all, I can only say that. Because this short circuit, nothing was connected in our home, there was power, the fire started, there was power. The power was there, but there were no devices plugged in. We checked carefully, we even checked the sockets and others there, nothing was plugged in. The firefighters were there, the police were there, they made the findings, they really saw that everything we said was true. We had not found any burnt appliance, to say that that was what was plugged in or that caused the fire. It was no device.”
Finally, she urges the Guinea electricity company to be more responsible. “All I can say to the EDG is to check very carefully the quality of the cables that are on the market, to help the population take care of this. Because without the right cable qualities, there will always be these cases of fire everywhere. They just have to help us, the victims, the population. Because if they do their job well, there won’t be this kind of case.”
May Cissé