Two minors burnt to death in Pumwani
Two minors were burnt to death on Thursday night when a fire tore through their fifth-floor house in Nairobi’s Pumwani area.
According to the police and witnesses, the girl and boy were aged seven and five respectively.
Neighbours said the fire started when a housemaid was preparing dinner with the children in the house and it spread quickly blocking the entrance to the house as residents struggled to get water and other supplies to put it out.
The girl was rescued but died in hospital from her injuries. The boy’s remains were discovered in his bedroom long after the fire had been extinguished.
The parents of the children were not home at the time the fire started and only learned about the incident after arriving home.
The bodies were taken to the mortuary for autopsy and further investigation. Police have since launched investigations into the incident.
The incident comes just days after a one-and-a-half-year-old child died in a fire in Githunguri, Kiambu County.
The minor was in her home with her older sister, aged four when the fire broke out on Monday night at Kamakwa village in Kanjai sub location.
Police said the fire raged through the four-roomed wooden structure, killing the child as her sister ran to safety.
The children’s parents were away at the time of the incident and arrived to discover the tragedy.
Police said they had yet to establish the cause of the fire. The remains have been taken to the mortuary pending an autopsy and investigation.
In June, a family in Kayole, Nairobi county, was left mourning after the death of their three-year-old daughter, who got trapped inside their house when it caught fire.
The child’s mother left the toddler asleep as she took her other children to school only to come back and find the house on fire and neighbours were unable to break down the door to access the child in good time.
The mother is said to have returned to a traumatic experience as she found her child had been trapped in the fire. Other houses were also destroyed in the fire, whose cause is yet to be established.