A vehicle loaded with gas exploded yesterday and set off an inferno that burned homes and warehouses in Kenya’s capital, killing at least three people and injuring more than 270, with the death toll expected to rise.
Many residents were likely inside their homes when the fire reached their houses late in the night in the Mradi area of the Nairobi neighborhood of Embakasi, government spokesman Isaac Mwaura said.
The truck explosion ignited a huge fireball and a flying gas cylinder set off a fire that burned down the Oriental Godown, a warehouse that deals with garments and textiles, Mwaura said.
Photo: AP
Several other vehicles and businesses were damaged by the inferno that started at about 11:30pm on Thursday.
At the scene after daybreak, several houses and shops were burned out. The shell of the vehicle believed to have started the explosion was lying on its side. The roof of a four-story residential building about 200m from the scene of the explosion was broken by a flying gas cylinder.
Electrical wires lay on the ground. Nothing remained in the burned-out warehouse except the shells of several trucks.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Alfred Juma, an aspiring politician, said he heard loud noise from a gas cylinder in a warehouse next to his house.
“I started waking up neighbors asking them to leave,” Juma said.
He said he warned a black car not to drive through the area, but the driver insisted and his vehicle stalled because of the fumes.
“He attempted to start the car three times and that’s when there was an explosion and the fire spread into the [warehouse] setting off other explosions,” he added.
Juma said he grabbed two children and they hid in a sewage ditch until the explosions ended.
His family had not been present, but Juma lost everything he owned in the fire.
“Police were turning away everyone and so it was difficult to access my house, and I had to seek a place to sleep until this morning,” neighbor Caroline Karanja said.
She said that the smell and smoke were still choking, and she would have to stay away for a while because she has young children.
Police and the Kenya Red Cross reported three deaths.
The toll was expected to rise after daybreak, Embakasi Police Chief Wesley Kimeto said.
The Kenyan government and the Red Cross said that 271 people were taken to several hospitals with injuries.
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