Nairobi airport reopens after hit by huge fire
Print Edition
A small fire that an under-resourced fire brigade reacted slowly swelled into a raging inferno that engulfed the arrival hall at Kenya’s main international airport yesterday, shutting down East Africa’s largest airport and forcing the cancellation of dozens of flights.
By last night, the Nairobi airport re-opened for domestic and cargo flights.
The massive, early-morning fire sent billows of black smoke high into Nairobi’s sky. The blaze burned for more than four hours before officials declared it contained, and flames continued to burn two more hours after that.
No serious injuries were reported. Two people were treated for smoke inhalation from the fire, which began a bit before 5am and turned airport banks and foreign exchange bureaus into black char.
“There were enormous flames and so much smoke,” said Katie Price, an American aid worker who arrived in Nairobi early yesterday from Malawi.
The fire gutted Jomo Kenyatta International Airport’s arrival hall, where passengers pass through immigration and retrieve their luggage. The fire did not damage the domestic or departure terminals, which are separated from the arrivals hall by a road.
Nairobi is the capital of East Africa’s largest economy, but it lies in a region where public sector services like police and fire units are hobbled by small budgets, corrupt money managers and outdated or no equipment.
Nairobi’s most respected paper, The Daily Nation, reported last month that Nairobi County doesn’t have a single working fire engine. One engine, the paper said, was auctioned off in 2009 because the county hadn’t paid a US$100 repair bill. Many of the responding units to yesterday’s fire were from private security firms.
“I would have expected more fire engines to respond faster,” said a British passenger, Martyn Collbeck, who had been scheduled to fly to London on an early morning KLM flight.
A government official said an initial assessment showed that a complacent response helped a small fire grow into an uncontrollable inferno. Some airport fire engines weren’t filled with water and others didn’t have personnel to drive them.
Kenya President Uhuru Kenyatta visited the scene and expressed concern over disrupted travel plans. The cause of the fire is being investigated.
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