Korogocho slums fire leaves Twenty-two families homeless

Twenty-two families have been left homeless after fire destroyed their 15 houses in Korogocho slums in Nairobi.

Some of those affected are sheltered at the nearby St. Claire Primary School while others have been housed by relatives.

The fire broke out on at around 9pm last night and took two hours to be put out.

The residents pointed to water shortage as an alibi for the long period it took for the fire brigade to contain the fire. By the time the inferno was reduced to embers, it had left costly destruction in the densely populated slum.

A section of the residents narrated to Standard Digital how they were forced to use sewage to contain the fire before the fire brigade arrived.

“As you can see our trenches are dry. We had to use sewage to contain the fire. If we had water we could have contained the fire fast enough,” said a resident.

One of the affected buildings housed scrap dealers’ who stored plastics and nylon that fanned the fire.

The Red Cross team that responded to the tragedy said there were no fatalities with only three people sustaining minor injuries.

Fire outbreaks are common at the Korogocho slum with the last inferno happening, coincidentally, on a Tuesday night on April 9 2019.

Three people died and 12 others sustained serious burn injuries after the fire reduced the Korogocho market into ashes. 

The cause of the inferno is yet to be established similarly to other Korogocho fires in the past.