TORIT MAYOR SAYS BURNING OF MARKET IS A LESSON

By: Lokuri Henry

Fire has burnt shops that remained at the former Omoliha Market in Eastern Equatoria State's Capital Torit in South Sudan, and many business owners lost most of their goods in the incidence.

According to eye witnesses, the fire started from a generator that burst into flames resulting to burning of all shops around and including Nyang, Labaluwa bar and lodges. It is unclear what caused the generator to catch the fire. 

Mayor of Torit Municipal Council Martin Odehi Ohuro told reporters at the scene on Monday 16^th February 2015 that he called the people of fire brigade, but their car was out of service. Odehi however commended the United Nation Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), for quick response by sending the UNMISS’ fire fighting truck.

“What I did was I connected with UNMISS, with Hiroko who was able to respond and she sent us UNMISS truck, so it is great help from them we really give them very big very big thanks, although it is not their mandate but they had to come in to assist the citizens of Torit” said the Mayor.

UNMISS fire fighting truck stationed at the scene, helped in putting off of the fire, while Business Water Tankers moved in line to fill up the UNMISS truck with water, some eye witnesses held the hosepipe while the fire fighters helped in directing the water canon towards putting off the fire.





Business Water Tankers lining up to fill
UNMISS Truck with water while eye witnesses held the hosepipe
 (Picture taken on 16/2/2015) 









 Hiroko Hirahara, Eastern Equatoria State’s Coordinator for United Nation Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) said that she had to act because the fire outbreak was a life saving matter. “I wanted to make sure that people know that this is a life saving assistant just like if you find somebody drowning, you would help and you would not mention about the mandate because at the end of the day, this is a life saving matter. When we learnt that there was a serious fire outbreak, first of all we wanted to know whether there was a human casualty” said Hiroko.  

Hiroko said the fire truck she dispatched was strictly for the aviation safety purpose, “you know very well that we have flights coming in, we have to have this truck to be ready in case of fire or aircraft accident, so this fire truck is not for anything else but for that purpose only, and then I have the responsibility to also make sure that the security and safety of my staff are intact” she added.

The UNMISS official said that the incidence had given experience of what people and the leadership of the Mayor, should do; citing building the capacity of the fire brigade and also thinking about creating fire warden and having an area to keep the water for firefighting purposes.

Mayor Odehi said the fire has caused a great loss to the Municipality because most of the goods were burnt. “We feel that it is a great loss to the Municipality because most of the goods are all burnt, and it is a very big loss although we have not assessed the loss, but it is really very big” said Mayor Odehi.



Burnt store of crates and canned
Tusker Lager



Burnt part of former Omoliha Market

When asked on the role of the municipality in enforcing the preparedness in terms of purchase of fire extinguishers, the mayor said the business community was undermining the directive. “You see our business community does not understand, when you tell them that you buy fire extinguishers, they take this thing as something that is not going to happen, and a few of them actually bought but many did not respond. So part of the blame goes to them because they think their goods are safe; they are not safe, so now as fire has come out, very few of them came with fire extinguishers. I think this is also a lesson for them to learn because the director of fire brigade had been going around for them to buy the fire extinguishers but they undermined it, I think it is a lesson for them, for all of us” Mayor Odehi emphasized.     
  Christine Ariemo, who was running a small restaurant, told reporters that she managed to rescue some of her properties but unfortunately they were looted as she tried to help her colleagues rescue theirs.

“By the time I show the fire from my neighbour’s place, I ran to assist him to collect his things. I collected mine after I see the fire is coming through my place I collected mine, I brought them outside, the remaining one inside was not actually many now, the one I brought outside was many, from outside then, another thief collected the DVD, the Whooper, 4 big tables plus 12 chairs plus other things” lamented Christine. 

Acting Commissioner of Police Col. Abdalaziz Deng Ngor said police were carrying out investigation to find the actual cause of the fire outbreak; he however said no injury was reported as a result of the fire.

The part of the market that got burnt was supposed to be relocated to Torit Model Market by last year but according to Mayor, the businesses could not be moved because the owners had lodges and were left to operate for a period of one year, to help accommodate visitors as the business owners would prepare to construct lodges in the New Market (Torit Model Market).

Part of Torit Model Market

This is not the first time shops have got burnt in the market, and whenever fire caught a shop, it  spread easily to the neighbours because the walls and roofs of the shops were constructed out of iron sheets, on temporary basis and coupled with the lack of spaces between shops.

Mayor Odehi however said the new plan of the market has provided enough spaces and he said those who have bought plots within the market would have to put up permanent buildings to avoid cases of fire outbreak and theft in future.