NAKURU: Longonot police post in Naivasha was reduced to ashes following an overnight fire that gutted it down.
During the Friday night incident, six guns, close to 400 rounds of ammunition and communication equipment were also burnt down.
The intense fire spread to three nearby wooden houses also burning them to the ground though no one was injured.
The incident along the Naivasha-Mai Mahiu road caused panic as tens of armed officers were sent to secure the police post.
Senior security officers toured the scene as they sought ways of assisting the affected officers and erecting a new police post.
Luckily no one was in the police cells with two officers manning the post that serves the nearby Longonot town and nearby villages.
Witnesses who spoke to the press pointed to an electric fault for the inferno adding that lack of a fire engine and water had complicated the issue.
A witness Samuel Gikonyo said that the fire started after midnight and gutted down the wooden police post in a record of less than thirty minutes.
Gikonyo said that heavy winds and lack of water compounded the situation making it hard to contain the intense fire.
"We had been experiencing power outages around the town on several occasions and we suspect that this was the cause of the fire," he said.
The sentiments were echoed by Peter Kariuki who challenged the county government to address the issue of firefighting engine.
"The fire was very intense making it hard to contain it and we suspect an electric fault could have caused it," said the witness.
A police source confirmed that six G3 rifles, communication equipment and a total of 371 rounds of ammunition and been destroyed.
"Currently operations at the police post have been paralysed but operations have started as we seek ways of putting up another one," said the officer.
Speaking on phone, Naivasha sub-county commissioner Isaac Masinde confirmed the incident adding that preliminary investigations pointed to an electric fault.
Masinde said that despite the incident, the police post would continue to operate as they sought ways of rebuilding it.
"Various government property including guns and communication gadgets were destroyed during the midnight incident," he said.
