Fire guts another beach hotel in Zanzibar
What you need to know:
- Though there were no fatalities, owners and guests were left counting losses after all property in the hotel was lost to the inferno.
Unguja. One month after five hotels burned down in South Unguja Region, another hotel, Karibu Beach Resort Pongwe, was razed to ashes on Thursday, August 4, by hungry flames in the Central District of the same region.
Though there were no fatalities, owners and guests were left counting losses after all property in the hotel was lost to the inferno.
The hotels that were burned on July 9, 2023, were Cristal Resort, Merak, Maisha Matam, Drifters, and The Nest Boutique Resort when the fire started and later spread by the wind to other hotels due to the grass thatched roofing.
Speaking to The Citizen, the Regional Commissioner, Rashid Hadid Rashid, said that the fire broke out in the evening after an electric shock occurred in one of the huts and spread throughout the hotel due to strong winds.
"It is true that an incident has occurred and almost everything has been burned due to the strong winds that were blowing at the time," he said.
According to him, 15 rooms were destroyed, one visitor’s passport was burned, and three other guests lost almost everything.
He assured the public, however, that they have formed a taskforce made up of ZECO, Police, and the fire brigade to investigate the true cause of the fires.
He also said that they have planned to start conducting inspections at hotels to check how electricity is used, especially large amounts of electricity, so they will be visiting all hotels to make sure they are safe.
