KAKATA, Margibi – A late Monday morning fire outbreak has destroyed four apartment buildings in the Kakata’s 14 Road Community, causing the associate magistrate of the Kakata City Court, Amos Fanga, to become homeless.

The burnt apartment buildings had three bedrooms each. According to eyewitness Vivian Bonard, the fire started in one of the rooms around 11:00 a.m. when all the occupants of the building were at work and school.

Bonard said she suddenly began smelling the burnt scent of clothes, which drew her attention to the scene, where she noticed a fire in one of the bedrooms.

“When I saw the fire, I started shouting for people to come and help and that’s how we burst the door but could not retrieve anything because of the intensity of the fire,” she said.

Fanga, the associate magistrate, told The Bush Chicken he was distraught as he had lost everything in had in the apartment, including some essential documents and all his personal belongings.

“The only thing I am left with was the clothes I wore from the house to work,” he said. “I am confused and don’t know where to start from.”

The Liberia National Police and the Liberia National Fire Service personnel’s in the county have launched an investigation, but there has been no probable cause of the incident.

Kakata has experienced at least two major unexplained fire incidents that have destroyed thousands of dollars’ worth properties.

In April this year, a four-bedroom structure used as head offices of a local Christian health charity group, Healthy Women Healthy Liberia, was gutted by fire, leaving the building in ashes.

In October 2016, Radio Kakata, one of the nine community radio stations operating in Margibi, was gutted by a fire that destroyed all of the station’s equipment.

The police have still not yet determined the cause of these major fires.

Featured photo by Emmanuel Degleh