Fire Completely Destroys Eight Houses in Babuti Quarters in Buea, Leaving Families Homeless

By Musonge Oscar in Buea for Mount Fako News Centre

25th March 2014

A fire disaster has destroyed eight houses leaving behind some families homeless and some persons receiving medical attention in the Babuti neighbourhood of Buea Town. The fire incident that sparked out at about 9.30 PM on Sunday 23 March, 2014, from a kitchen, eventually spread to neighbouring houses.
Local people fighting the fire put down six houses to prevent the fire from extending to neighbouring houses. Most of the houses in this neighbourhood are constructed of wood, with little or no space between them and they are as old as 60 years. A small flame can result to an entire neighbourhood consumed by fire.
Though the actual cause of the fire is yet to be established, it is purported that the fire started from a kitchen where a kid of about 11 years was left to take care of pot on fire. Whatever transpired that led to the fire outburst is best known to the kid and God.

A close neighbour claimed that they heard the kid shouting “blood of Jesus”, but never took it seriously at the start since he is noted for mischievous acts. The neighbours only decided to go to the scene when the young man started shouting at the top of his voice. But by the time they got there, fire had already spread to the walls of the kitchen and it was spreading to the next house.
The neighbours then raced an alarm which got up many inhabitants who were already asleep. Efforts to rescue the situation and prevent the fire from spreading failed because the local people fighting the fire depended solely on water that was very scarce since Buea is suffering from water crisis. More to this, Buea, which is a the headquarters of the South West Region, lacks a fire fighting brigade. It is not known where those whose houses were destroyed are living at the moment. It is also not known whether they will get any help from anybody or organisation.