By S. Sipaha Mulbah
More than one dozen people residing on Camp Johnson Road have been forced into displacement as a result of a devastating fire outbreak that brought down a seven-bedroom house in the Jallabah Yard.
The house serving as a home to seven different families in Montserrado County electoral district eight was gutted by a huge flame during the afternoon hours of Monday April 28, 2025.
According to eyewitnesses, many of whom are neighbors, the situation began midday with flames and smoke heating from one of the rooms in the building.
“We were around doing our personal activities when the house started smoking from the roof. Trying to find out, we saw the room that the fire started from,” a member of the community explained.
The situation accordingly occurred at a time of the day that majority of the occupants of the house had gone out to work, school and other places making it hard to retrieve some of their belongings during the fire outbreak.
The victims, in an exclusive interview with Inquirer Newspaper, expressed dismay upon being called by community dwellers about being homeless upon return as a result of fire.
Popular bodybuilder Sapo Giant’s mother Mabel Gaye, an occupant of the house burst into tears when revealing that her family have lost everything to the fire.
She lamented, “We are displaced people as a result of the fire that burned our house. Everything some of us had worked for is gone and there is nowhere to call a home to our families.”
She added that there were valuables including cash that were kept in her room for her daughter’s house project.
Huge amounts of that fund burned despite the community dwellers effort to rescue some items.
“People came to help stop the fire but they were not able. They tried to open the doors to bring some of the things we had inside including the money for my daughter’s house project I had there but the fire overcame them,” she explained.
Also speaking, another occupant in the house Abu Kamara noted that they from different families are in pain spread in communities with their kids looking for shelter. “Last night was a very tormenting one for us. We had to search for a place to spend the night.”
According to Kamara, the cause of the fire has not been established but many of those that were around attributed it to an electrical shock that emerged from one of the rooms.
The victims however called on government and international partners as well as humanitarian organizations to come to their aid as they pray to have their home rebuilt to host the affected families.
“We are lost and frustrated by this disaster that occurred and we need help to get back to ourselves. Some of the things we lost are items that we will never get but thank God that we are alive. We are calling on the government and every well-meaning Liberian and organization to come to our aid,” the victims called.
