Fire sparked by 3-year-old burns houses, shops in Buea

Several families have been rendered homeless and others stranded after fire ravaged 3 apartments and 10 shops in the Bakweri Town neighbourhood in Great Soppo, Buea. The unfortunate incident occurred Tuesday, May 26.

The fire is said to have sparked off when a 3-year-old boy, Noel Ani, fiddled with a gas lighter. According to an eyewitness whose name we got as Namondo, the three-year-old boy was left alone in the house when the incident occurred.

“The boy’s mother had gone out to fetch water. She left her son all to himself. It is said that the young boy was playing with a gas lighter before his mother left the house,” Namondo said.

She added that: “The boy set fire on a paper on the wall of their wooden house at about 7:30am. Before the boy’s mother got to the house, the flames had become uncontrollable. The fire spread fast, apparently aided by the windy weather.”

Other eyewitnesses confirm that the boy who is about three years old used a lighter to start the fire. They said he lighted a paper on the wall that later spread to the other houses.

13 houses are said to have been razed; 3 households and the rest were hosting businesses. All the houses that were charred by the fire are said to have been constructed entirely with wood.

Though no one died as a result of the fire, property estimated in millions of FCFA was lost to the fire. Two students whose houses were burnt are due to sit the 2015 General Certificate of Education (GCE) Examinations whose written phase begins June 1. The two students lost all their documents, books, GCE personal timetable, among other things, to the fire.

Mayor of Buea, Ekema Patrick paid a visit to the site. He watched concerned members of the public struggle to contain the flames with sand and wet plants – Buea has no firefighting brigade.

Governor Bernard Okalia Bilai and the Divisional Officer for Buea, Paul Kouam Wokam each took turns to evaluate the damage caused by the fire.

The mother of the young boy, Stella Bih who roasts and sells maize along the road was together with the boy’s father taken by the police as investigations have been opened into the matter.