Fire razes food bars, no fatalities
TWO fast-food bar cubicles at the Central Market were left in tatters after a fire razed through them yesterday afternoon, throwing the busy market area into chaos.
But fire fighters quickly put the blaze down from spreading to the nearby cubicles, and that no one was injured or killed.
Market Manager Jim Henson Riunga told the Solomon Star last night the fire started from one of the cubicle’s kitchen.
“The information we got is the fire started from one of the gas cylinders,” Mr Riunga said.
“The two cubicles were extensively damaged, but the market will continue to open as normal tomorrow (today),” he added.
Mr Riunga said a vehicle owned by Kitano, which carries water for use on the road construction, was the first to arrive on the scene.
“The truck was just nearby so they quickly divert it to the scene. It helped to contain the fire from spreading before the fire fighters arrived and put it down.”
A Honiara City Council Officer at the scene said the fire started when one of the cylinders caught fire.
“According to the shopkeepers manning the cubicle, they said the fire started from the kitchen demarcated area,” the officer said.
“Their cylinder caught fire and the flames engulfed the boiling oils, producing more heat which shoots the kitchen ceiling first.
“We could not help as the fire lit up the booth so quickly because there are cooking oils and polystyrene materials stored inside,” the officer added.
A fish vendor who sits opposite the restaurant booth said the fire engulfed the booth so quickly.
“It was so fast that the fire swept from the kitchen up the ceiling and blowing the thick ashes sideways towards the Honiara City Council Market building,” the vendor said.
“All of us, the market buyers and sellers panicked and ran towards the sea in fear of a possible explosion,” the fish seller said.
The fire also partly destroyed two other shops nearby.
However, the encroaching flames did not enter the inner section and this was quickly put out by fire fighters.
The cost of damage was not known.
It’s understood this is the first fire to have occurred at the market premises since the completion of the Japanese government-funded market project in the early 1990s.
By TEDDY KAFO
