Emergency response team in Nakuru accused of being slow

The emergency response and disaster management department has been accused of being ineffective during fire outbreaks.

The complaints come following two fire incidents at the weekend in Nakuru town that left property worth millions of shillings destroyed.

In the first incident that occurred on Saturday, a hardware was razed to the ground with the disaster management team responding hours after the fire had consumed the store.

The fire started at around 11am, but the team responded after two hours despite being just a kilometre away.

Joseph Kariuki, a trader at an adjacent building to the one that housed the hardware, said they informed the county immediately the fire started, but the team took hours to respond.

“The fire was spreading fast. The county team did not act on time, they came after two hours and the engine did not have water,” said Mr Kariuki.

Early Morning

Nakuru Town West MP Samuel Arama blamed the fire department team for being sluggish in responding to emergencies.

“The county has invested a lot of money to purchase fire engines, but it is unfortunate the engines are not equipped to help save lives and property,” said Arama.

In the second incident reported yesterday morning at Nakuru Poly Plast, machines and equipment of unknown value were reduced to ashes following an early morning fire.

An employee, Patrick Onyango, said the fire was reported at around 4am. Nobody was injured in the incident.

The officer in charge of firefighting and disaster management Isaiah Mwema dismissed the claims and said the response to the two incidents was timely.

Mr Mwema said in the first incident, the control received a phone call at around 11.30am and they tried all they could to be there on time.