By Newman Anthony Levey in Bo
A fire accident in Bo last Saturday has left 18 people homeless. Residents at Clerks Quarters in Bo, where the incident took place, believe that it was an electrical fire and they blamed the fluctuating power supply of the Electricity Distribution and Supply Authority (EDSA).
Mohamed Lamin Cham, who resides at the house that was destroyed, said he was travelling to his village with his mother when neighbors called to inform him that their house was on fire.
"The cause of the fire was as a result of EDSA light which came with high voltage. We have another source of power which is solar and generator, but we don't normally use those,” he told Politico.
The Fire Force were quick to arrive at the scene because of their proximity to the house where the accident occurred. But the shortage of water in their tank meant that they couldn’t do enough to put out the fire.
Onlookers said the fire was further exacerbated by the harmattan wind that is blowing across the country.
Fire outbreaks have increased in the last few weeks since the weather condition changed. In just the last two weeks, fire incidences have been reported PWD Polio victims camp and Lumely Street in the center of Freetown. Millions of Leones worth of machandise and personal properties were destroyed by these incidences.
The Fire Chief in the southern region, Anusu Lamin Pumagoi, blamed the cause of the Bo fire incident on EDSA and faulty electricity connections.
“The cause of the fire was as a result of the light supplied by EDSA and the old connections, by joining the wrong cables. We tried very hard to put off the fire and did all we could so that the fire would not burn another house which we succeeded in doing,” he said.
But EDSA officials in the city refuted the claim that their power supply was the cause. The Public Relations of EDSA in Bo, Sulaiman Koroma, said there was no electricity supply in the area by EDSA on Saturday morning, when the accident occurred.
Meanwhile, Cham said himself and his family were now stranded following the incident.
"We were 18 living in the house and the house costs around Le250,000.000. There were no lives lost, but we didn't remove a single property from the house,” he said.
He added: “I am a final year student of Njala University, pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Sociology. All my documents and those of my friends got burnt down,” Cham added.
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