Two hotels razed in massive Malindi fire

Two hoteliers at Casaurina area in Malindi town are counting losses after fire burnt down their premises on Monday evening causing massive destruction of property.

The fire is alleged to have been caused by an electric fault outside one of the premises and quickly spread to the adjacent one due to strong winds.

Kenga Jama house, a resort villa is where the fire started before spreading to Darado Cottages resort which is less than 100 meters away.

According to the proprietor of Kenga Jama house Mr. Nicola Mosca, the fire broke out at around 1pm when sparks of fire emanated from a power line that fell on the makuti thatched roof of the buildings near it.

At the time some of the guests were relaxing in their rooms while others were swimming in the pool.

“I saw some sparks from the Kenya Power electric lines which then spread to the Makuti thatched roof and spread so fast to other areas,” he said.

The resort Sh. 84 million has a capacity of 33 rooms and had over 25 guests with 90 percent of them being locals when the fire broke out.

The fire also burnt down two vehicles and a motorcycle 600 cc which were parked near the gate and efforts to get immediate help from the Kilifi County Fire services that have a station within the town took too long.

“We did not get immediate help and we had a hard time rescuing the guests,” added Mosca.

The fire fighters arrived after the better part of the resort had been destroyed by fire. Ignas Mchana the resort manager said he suspects the fire sparks from Kenga Jama might have been spread by strong winds that could have caused the fire.

When the press arrived at the facility, the resort employees were busy trying to put off the fire using water from the swimming pool.

Mr Mchana said he is lucky since there were no guests as the resort when the fire broke out through the makuti thatched roof.

“I came out of the office and found the roof burning and it then spread to the whole resort,’’ he said.

Ms. Mary Wanjiku a neighbiour of Kenga Jama said she is lucky to have rescued her property after the fire spread to her roof.

“I thank security team, police, and other security organizations that were in the forefront of countering goons that had begun looting helpless hoteliers,” she added.