'We held hands waiting to die': Father recounts horror of Mathare fire

When George Omondi went to bed with his wife and child in their iron-sheet home in Mathare B, Nairobi on Sunday night, he expected nothing more than a restful sleep.

But by midnight, his world had turned into a nightmare.

“It was midnight, we were sleeping and I was in heavy sleep, then I heard my neighbour shouting fire. When I got out, I found that the house was already in fire, smoke all over. Coming out with my wife and child, we realised the stairs had caught fire and we could not go down. There were no stairs, already burnt,” said Omondi.

Trapped and with flames spreading rapidly, Omondi and his family were forced back inside the house.

“We went back inside and decided that let us just die, together with my wife and child. In the middle of the house, we held hands together,” he said.

But in a desperate bid to survive, his wife urged him to climb up and jump through the window.

“I did not want to because looking at the window, it was so high and also thinking that I can jump then my family perishes, I was adamant but she insisted, I had to jump,” Omondi said.

Moments later, on the ground below, Omondi saw his child unconscious, bleeding from the nose and mouth.

“I went where the child was, and started praying. I saw the child raise the hand and I think somebody grabbed the child and rushed to hospital,” he said.

But his wife never made it out. “Looking back, the mother had gone, burnt in the house,” he said, struggling with emotions.

“My neighbours also got burnt, others perished and I am told others are in hospital, I don’t know their state. I am pleading for help, I don’t know where to begin, I am injured, my wife has left us. I am asking for help to bury my wife, it is all I am asking for. I am in so much pain and hurting that my wife did not make it out of the inferno alive,” Omondi said.

The fire, which started shortly after midnight, consumed a one storey residential iron-sheet houses and two churches, killing five people, including two children.

Four others sustained injuries and are receiving treatment in various hospitals.

Milicent Akinyi, a resident, painted a grim picture of the devastation, pleading for help from the government and well-wishers.

“The church has burnt, residential houses and five lives have been lost including two kids. We don’t know yet what caused the fire. We are pleading with the government to come and offer us help,” she said.

She noted that among the injured is an injured child who is hospitalised.

“Also, in the building that caught fire, there was a salon, owned by a widow which has been razed down. Everything that was inside caught fire and nothing was rescued. The firefighters came but the fire was so intense. The houses were made of ironsheets and the fire spread so fast,” said Akinyi.

John Mwongola, a church elder described the tragedy as a sad one that has taken the lives of his church members.

Mwongola pleaded with the county government to establish fire centres close to the people

“We are asking as a church that the government can help us send those who lost their lives off. The firefighters came but found the people had already perished. If they would have been close here, these people would not have died, the response would be so quick,” said Mwongola.

Banda Felix, a resident who witnessed the fire, said that the locals tried to put the fire off but they could not.

“We are asking that the county government brings the fire-fighting engines where the people in slums are to avoid such calamities in the future,” said Felix.

He further called on the authorities to train and equip youth in informal settlements with basic firefighting skills.

“Also, train the youth on fire fighting and equip them with appropriate gear, they would be of help in combatting such tragedies,” Felix said.