Kitchen fire consumes restaurant in Ruiru
Tamu Tamu Prestige Food Court at Kwa-Kairu in Ruiru that was burned down on Friday night. The fire started from the restaurant's kitchen before spreading to the store and later consuming the entire restaurant causing damages of an unknown value. PHOTO | MARY WAMBUI | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- The 11pm incident caused panic among Tamu Tamu Prestige Food Court staff after a small fire that was thought to have been contained in the kitchen managed to spread into the restaurant's store unnoticed.
- Eyewitnesses said the fire engine from Ruiru arrived at the scene but did not have enough water.
A kitchen fire burned down an entire restaurant on Friday night in Ruiru, Kiambu County, causing damages of unknown value.
The 11pm incident caused panic among Tamu Tamu Prestige Food Court staff after a small fire that was thought to have been contained in the kitchen managed to spread into the restaurant's store unnoticed.
The fire then spread to the entire restaurant forcing the workers to scamper for safety.
"We were doing our normal chores at around 11 pm when a small fire started in the kitchen but we managed to put it off.
“Little did we know that the fire had found its way into the stores and was swiftly spreading into the entire restaurant," said Jeremiah Koigi, a cook at the restaurant.
At the time, around 15 people were in the restaurant when someone noticed some smoke emanating from the stores.
"Upon checking on the cause of the smoke, we realised the fire that had started from the kitchen had fast spread into the stores without our knowledge," said Ishmael Malala another cook at the restaurant.
LEAVE THE BUILDING
It was then that everybody was asked to leave the building and efforts to contain the fast-spreading fire begun, with the help of area boba boda operators.
Eyewitnesses said the fire engine from Ruiru arrived at the scene but did not have enough water.
"It left to get some more but by the time it came back, Thika fire engine had already arrived. Unfortunately they did not manage to save anything," added Mr Mulala.
Neighbouring business owners also lost their property in the incident.
"I had stocked some new materials for my tailoring business but they were all destroyed when my door was broken down while well-wishers were attempting to put off the fire," said one businesswoman.
The affected persons are yet to quantify the amount of the damages caused.
