Massive Fire Destroys Hargeysa Foam Factory

Hargeysa, 4 August 2007 (SL Times) - A massive fire blaze swept through ‘Al-Khayrat’ foam factory in Hargeysa district of Ahmed Gurey on Wednesday afternoon and completely destroyed the factory.

“Nobody was inside the foam factory when the fire started and no injuries reported,” said Abdillahi Jama, the managing director of Al-Khayrat foam factory.

Mr Jama told the SL Times that the fire broke out in the factory warehouse area, around 4:30pm, and has destroyed burnt to the ground all but the factory walls. He also said the damage by the fire was estimated to be around $1.5 million.

Mr Jama added that the cause of the fire is not clear, and that they and the authorities don’t think it was started deliberately, but may have been caused by an electrical fault.

SL Times asked the managing director whether the factory had any fire equipment installed and if fire precaution measures were in place?”

“Yes, we had fire extinguishers stored in all areas of the factory, but these were of little use against a fire of this size and blaze,” replied Abdillahi Jama.

The managing director of Al-Khayrat stressed that they did there best to save the factory but were overwhelmed by the fire and smoke and couldn’t do much to contain them.

Throughout the afternoon and night, the factory owners, local authority and residents of Ahmed Gurey district tried to extinguish the massive blaze, but could not bring it under control.

The Hargeysa ‘Al-Khayrat’ foam factory was the only one of its kind in Somaliland, and was established in 2000 by Somaliland local and Diaspora businesses and private investors.

Abdi Mursal, a resident of Ahmed Gurey district, who was among the many people nearby watching the factory going up in smoke commented that it took more than 40 minutes for the local authority fire engine to reach the factory, and a little longer for the Dahabshil company fire engine to arrive, and that the local authority fire engine was ill-equipped to hose down a fire of this magnitude.

Another resident, Amina Haji Muhammad, who lives near the factory, said, “Hargeysa, a city with a population of almost 1 million people has no fire department, is something hard to believe!”

The local Hargeysa city authority has one locally manufactured fire engine which has a water storage tank capacity of five metric-cubits and a one inch hosepipe which barely can hose water to a distance of eight/ten meters.