Mbouda: fire fighters fail to intervene as 5 shops burn
By Stephen TADAHA
At least 5 shops have been burned down in Mbouda, in the Bamboutos division of the West region. The incident occured on Sunday April 2nd 2023.
The flames whose origins remain unknown broke out at about 4am at “Ancien Bâtis”, on the main street of Mbouda, consuming shops containing construction materials, bikes, spare parts and other accessories.
It is thanks to the intervention of the local population that the flames were put out some hours later after multiple attempts to seek the intervention of fire fighters yielded no fruits. The fire fighters justified their absence by declaring a technical failure on one of their vehicles.
“I was speechless when I saw the flames and tried reaching the fire fighters unit in Bafoussam but the reply I got was that the car that was supposed to reach here had a breakdown,” affirmed an eye-witness.
“Such flames have been multiplying in Mbouda and we need a fire fighting unit here. Each time we call Bafoussam, they take hours before intervening because of traffic. It is too much. Look at the time the population took to master the flames, about 5 hours,” added the eyewitness.
The SDO for Bamboutos François Franquelin Etapa and the Lord Mayor of Mbouda visited the site. Although no loss in human life was recorded, material damage is estimated at millions of FCFA.
The SDO during his visit to the site, saluted the bravery of local population and called on inhabitants to continue as such given that the town has no fire fighting unit.
Mayor Wadji on his part promised to put in place a team in the nearest future that will be responsible for tackling similar situations that have been multiplying in the town.
The fire comes just some months after a similar incident occurred in the town. On February 5th 2023, fire consumed a plank site in the town while another fire outbreak consumed a restaurant at Camp Poulet on January 7 2023.
