Sunday, May 26, 2013 01:45 
20 Houses Burnt In West Point
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Over four hundred persons were made homeless last Saturday after fire gutted and burnt about 20 houses in the township of West Point, close to Central Monrovia. According to an eye witness, the fire apparently started from a coal pot of a lady who was frying some mixed flower (Cala) at about 4p.m. The raging fire reportedly spread to surrounding houses and were razed to their foundations.
West Point is a highly congested community noted for jammed-up houses with hardly any accessible alleys something which might have facilitated the impossibility of extinguishing the fire.
According to our reporter who visited the area during the fire incident, several residents were seen bringing out their wares before the fire could reach their respective houses while over four hundred others lost everything they owned.
Personal belongings were seen on the beach as people struggled frantically to salvage whatever they could lay their hands on.
“I have lost everything I owned as a result of this fire while thousands of Liberian dollars worth of properties were destroyed. We seriously need the help of our government and the Red Cross,” an elderly man told the INQUIRER.
Reports monitored yesterday also confirmed that the lady who lit the coal pot to fry her mixed flower has been arrested by the Liberia National Police (LNP) for questioning.
Efforts by the Liberia National Fire Service and its counterparts from the Liberian Refinery Corporation to extinguish the fire proved futile due to the inaccessibility of the area.
Although thousands of United States Dollars worth of properties were destroyed there has been no report of casualty.
