Two Nurses, Others Killed In Fire Incident

The Parco Island community was over the weekend a scene of a tragic fire outbreak that gutted a three-bedroom house leaving two female nurses and two male students between the ages 14 and 30 years dead, out of the eight occupants that were in the house prior to the calamity.The situation which started by 1:30 a.m. on January 17, 2020, saw the presence of huge community dwellers who broke down in tears describing the death of the four deceased as a disastrous and heart-breaking one which is very difficult to perceive. The Liberia National Police (LNP) forensic team and the National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA) Executive Director(ED), Henry Williams also lamented over the incident.
The house which razed to its foundation was a family house headed by Mr. Daniel S. Solo and his wife Grace Solo, as everyone living in the house prior to the incident were all family members.
Those who perished in the fire disaster include; Sandra Niko, age 30 and a nurse by occupation; Pamela Jackson, age 25 and also a nurse by occupation; Roland Kander, age 14 and a student from Trumpet H. God Institute and Josiah Brooks, age 14 and also a student.
Speaking to this paper at the fire scene, one of the community inhabitants, Joseph Grant said that upon receiving the information of the fire outbreak, he immediately went to the scene but the fire had already engulfed the entire house even though they were only able to save four out of the eight persons that were in the house.
He explained further that they tried furtively to save everyone that were in the house but could not, due to the furious blazing fire, adding, “We broke down some parts of the wall and even inserted a ladder into the house but we were only able to save four persons.”
Also speaking was the community chairman, Yalla P. Mulbah who described the situation as something that is unimaginable, and a great loss to the community, and as such, their entire community is broken down though they don’t really know the cause of the fire yet.
Mr. Mulbah further expressed his dissatisfaction with the Liberia National Fire Service (LNFS) for their failure to have responded to their calls, lamenting, “We called them from the onset of the incident but only to inform us that they had no ‘fuel’ in their trucks.”
For his part, the National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA) Executive Director, Henry Williams expressed regret on behalf of the government over the death of the two nurses and the two students- stressing that it was another indelible disaster and indeed a sad day for the country as a whole.
In tears, Mr. Williams said that they as government are very concerned about the several fire incidents in the country, alluding to the recent fire outbreak in the Town Hall Community two weeks ago that led to the death of three female children as well as in 2019, that led to death of 21 Islamic students, adding, “From last year to date, we have experienced close to 200 plus fire cases that had caused so many deaths in our country.”
The NDMA Executive Director further called on international partners like the United Nations (UN), USA Embassy near Monrovia and the Swedish Embassy among others to help aid the government in order to fight and curtail the fire disaster that continue to confront the country, stressing, “I think it is time for our partners to help the government fight this fire nightmare, as it has now become an emergency in the country.”
What was observed in the eyes of many Liberians at the fire scene was total grief, as the fire disaster in recent times in the country is unbecoming. Though the Indian government had donated to the government five brand new fire trucks to help in the fight against fire hazards, but the continuous fire outbreak in the country is bringing into mind of every citizens the country’s darkest days when the EBOLA epidemics hit and killed many people.
In less than a month, the country has experienced over eight deaths in 2020 from fire outbreak, ranging from the Robert Field Highway that led to one death, the Paynesville Town Hall community leaving three children dead and the most recent is the Parco Island Community that saw four family members die.