A fire out break at Wakulima Supermarket in Chogoria, Tharaka Nithi County did not occur due to an electric fault but through critical fire protection and employee blunders.
Martin Karithi, a first responder and an electric technician while speaking exclusively to The Peak said they noticed fire in the supermarket at around 9 Pm on Monday 9 August, and upon reaching the premises found that the blaze had been caused by two electric deep fryers.
According to Karithi, the electric deep fryers had been left on and unsupervised after a power line supplying the supermarket experienced power outage at around 7 Pm that evening.
“There is no way that the fire was as a result of electric fault. It was clear to us that two of the electric fryers were left on and unsupervised since no one was in the store at the moment. The switches were still on even after one of the electric lines experienced a power outage”, he said.
One of the supermarket’s staff identified as Mrs Kamau, told The Peak that they forgot to switch off the fryers.
“After the power outage we forgot to switch off the fryers. We did not realize it until members of the public noticed fire in the store”, she said.
One person was rushed to Chogoria hospital after experiencing breath shortness during the incident.
The fire was contained by the locals and support from the Tharaka Nithi Fire and Rescue department.
