JUBA — A fire outbreak on Wednesday morning gutted parts of South Sudan’s Ministry of Roads and Bridges, destroying two offices and valuable property, according to the ministry’s official.
Yien Bol Mayuak, Director General for Administration and Finance at the Ministry of Road and Bridges, told Sudans Post on Wednesday that the fire gutted the offices of the minister and executive secretary, destroying furniture, documents, and office equipment.
“We managed to contain the fire. Only the offices of the minister and the executive director were burned, while the rest of the offices, including that of the undersecretary, were not affected,” Bol said.
Bol said the fire broke out while ministry staff were already at work on Wednesday, shortly before the minister arrived at the office.
“Regarding what happened, there was a fire outbreak in the minister’s office. The fire was caused by an electrical socket connected to the air conditioner, which was the source of the blaze,” he said.
He said the fire is believed to have started from an electrical socket connected to an air conditioner in the minister’s office.
“It happened while we were already in the office, although the minister was still on his way. When the fire broke out, we immediately rushed to the minister’s office,” he said.
He said staff immediately responded after noticing the fire and contacted the fire brigade while using fire extinguishers to try to control the blaze.
Bol said the fire was intense and destroyed everything inside the affected offices, including documents and other valuable property.
According to Bol, the firefighters and ministry staff managed to contain the blaze and prevent it from spreading to other offices within the ministry complex.
“The fire was contained only in the office of the minister and the undersecretary and the executive director. But the rest of the offices are not affected,” he said.
He confirmed that no casualties were reported in the incident and all ministry employees remained safe.
“There is no human harm. There is not any human person affected. All our staff are safe,” he said.
He said the fire caused significant damage to the affected offices, with documents and other materials inside the minister’s office destroyed.
Gen. Roden Loro, Commissioner General of the National Civil Defense Service, said his officers extinguished a fire that broke out at the Ministry of Roads and Bridges in Juba within six minutes of responding to the incident.
He said firefighters arrived at the scene within about five minutes and quickly brought the blaze under control.
“Our officers in the Central Equatorial Civil Defence immediately responded to the fire outbreak with their full force and equipment,” he said.
“They arrived at exactly five minutes to the scene of the fire and did a good job. They extinguished the fire and brought things under control,” he added.
Following the incident, the commissioner said he formed a five-member committee to investigate the cause of the fire and assess the damage caused.
The committee is headed by a director from the Civil Defence Service and deputized by an engineer from the Ministry of Roads and Bridges, alongside three other members.
He said the committee has been given three days to submit its findings, which will help determine the cause of the fire and recommend measures to prevent similar incidents.
The cause of the fire has not been independently established beyond the official’s preliminary account that an air-conditioner socket was the source of the blaze.
