Four-year-old boy dies in Dandora house fire
File Image of a Police Car
A four-year-old boy was killed after a fire gutted two houses in Dandora Phase Two, Nairobi, on Wednesday night.
Police officers rushed to the scene and found two iron-sheet houses on fire. A large crowd of residents had already gathered and was battling the blaze before eventually managing to extinguish it at about 11 pm.
Preliminary investigations indicated that the fire started in one of the houses before spreading to a neighbouring structure.
During the incident, a four-year-old boy was trapped in the inferno and was burnt to death. Other members of the affected family were safely evacuated and escaped without injuries.
The cause of the fire had not been established by the time police visited the scene.
Authorities said the two houses were completely destroyed, with property of unknown value also lost in the blaze. Crime Scene Investigation officers from Buru-Buru processed and documented the scene as investigations into the cause of the fire commenced.
The body of the child was moved to the Nairobi City Mortuary pending a post-mortem examination.
Police have launched investigations to determine the cause of the deadly fire.
Meanwhile, police in Kwale County launched investigations following the death of a local tourist who was found unresponsive in his room at a resort in Diani.
The deceased was identified as Elizaphan Nicholus Maina Muraguri, a guest at Diamond Leisure Resort.
The incident came to light after hotel management noticed that Muraguri had failed to check out by the scheduled time of 10:00 a.m. Efforts to reach him through the room telephone were unsuccessful, while repeated knocks on the door went unanswered.
Concerned about his welfare, hotel staff used a master key card to gain access to the room, where they found him lying face down on the floor. Blood-soaked towels were reportedly found next to the body.
Upon examination, a doctor confirmed that the guest was unresponsive and showed no signs of life. He was pronounced dead at around 11:00 a.m.
The body was removed to the mortuary at Pandya Memorial Hospital, where a post-mortem examination is expected to establish the cause of death.
Police said investigations are ongoing and have not ruled out any possibilities pending the outcome of the autopsy and forensic examinations.
And a search operation was launched in Embu County after a man reportedly drowned while swimming in Kariare Dam within the Dallas area of Embu West Sub-County.
The incident was reported at around 8:00 p.m. on Wednesday after members of the public alerted authorities that a person had drowned in the dam.
A team visited the scene at Kariare Dam near Dallas Shopping Centre.
Witnesses told investigators that the deceased, identified only as Nick, popularly known by the nickname “Jitu,” had been seen swimming in the dam at about 1:00 p.m. before he disappeared beneath the water.
Members of the public reported that he drowned in the middle section of the dam, making immediate recovery efforts difficult.
The Embu County Disaster Management Team was notified and is expected to lead retrieval efforts.
By Wednesday night, the body had not been recovered. Authorities said the retrieval operation was scheduled to resume on Thursday, June 11.
Police have indicated that a detailed progress report will be issued once the body is recovered and the circumstances surrounding the drowning are fully established.