The disaster, provoked by a burning candle, leaves no human casualty.

Several properties, including a segment of a residence were on Sunday destroyed by a fire outbreak at the New Bell area called Babylon. The fire, which resulted from a lit candle, completely razed one of seven rooms of the house a few blocks away from Hotel La Côte. In it were a wooden wardrobe, clothing, and cutlery, among others.

The incident comes less than a week after a similar disaster killed five people at the Madagascar neighbourhood in Douala.

It was at about 10 am when the drastic incident occurred. The landlady, Patricia K., said she used candles in the room during the day and at night. “I have lived like that without electric power supply in my three-room apartment for eight weeks.” At the time of the incident, she was in a beer parlour a little distance from home but within the neighbourhood.

Smoke billowing from the house caught the attention of alert neighbours who immediately broke into a tenant’s room in order to stop the disaster happening in the landlady’s apartment. Hordes of young people in just a short time thronged the area and climbed surrounding buildings. From housetops and storeys they shoot sand, some pouring water until it stopped the mishap. The fire did not cross over to other rooms and houses. There was no human casualty. Only parlour furniture, among other household properties in the sitting room, were saved following quick rescue efforts.

To Pandema Petula, tenant whose room was broken into, she came back from the market just to discover that not only the door to her room was broken but also the ceiling was scattered and roof removed in effort to put off the fire. Meanwhile, her properties and those of some of her co-tenants were destroyed by sands and mud following efforts to stop the drastic fire.