Nairobi fire brigade personnel battle with the Sunday fire that razed upper floors of Kimathi house

The City Council of Nairobi has refuted claims of sluggishness in their response to the Sunday night fire that razed several floors of Kimathi House.
The Council’s Chief Fire Officer Peter Ngugi said his officers reacted in good time but were let down by a dysfunctional hydrant near the building.
“As soon as we were informed of the fire, we organised ourselves together with the army tankers, GSU and the people from the G4S,” he told journalists in Nairobi on Monday.
“But the main problem was that the hydrant near the building had water with very low pressure to reach where the fire was (5th floor).”

Hydrants are firefighting facilities erected near buildings to enable firemen to tap into the water supply.
According to Mr Ngugi, it was the responsibility of the Nairobi Water and Sewerage Company to ensure there was sufficient pressure in all hydrants around the city.
“It is the work of Nairobi Water to make sure there is enough water in the hydrants.”
The fire, which started shortly before 7pm on Sunday, burnt the upper floors of Kimathi house.
City Council firemen were the first to arrive at the building situated at the junction between Kimathi Street and Kenyatta Avenue, but took 15 minutes to launch their assault on the blaze.
By then, only a small portion of the northern side of the 5th floor was burning.
Their machine could not pump the water higher than the third floor, thus letting the fire to continue.
It took the intervention of the military, security firms G4S, KK as well as National Youth Service to bring down the flames.
The fire is said to have reignited deep in the night when the firemen had left, consuming the remaining upper floors.
By Monday 6am, G4S fighters were dousing the fire for the second time.