Editorial: Bamenda fire victims still without gov’t succour!.

Unfortunately, close to 300 shops were destroyed by the fire. It is still a temporary figure," the Governor of the North West Region, Adolphe Lele, said

Professional firefighters, who arrived at the scene some 30 minutes after, are reported to have struggled through the whole of Thursday night and Friday morning to put out the inferno, but it was too late.

"Here is my mother's shop; it's just last week that I opened the other one, plus my own main shop over there. Everything has been consumed by fire. I am just confused for now," one of the victims explained to reporters, pointing at the charred remains of the shop.

It is a sad saga of over 300 other traders whose only source of income vanished as they looked helpless, stressed and in misery as such fires that have been rampant in the country consume their investment.

After observing the burnt shops, Governor Adolphe Lele told the distressed traders that they will be compensated in due time. He added that he was sent by the presidential couple to extend their heartfelt consolation message to them.

The Governor added that those who incurred injuries during the fire will have their hospital bills paid for.

The devastated victims, visibly in misery, were advised by the Governor to prepare and make themselves available for a commission to record what they lost in the fire. The commission is also expected to investigate and find out the exact cause of the fire.

They were also told new and safer shops will be constructed by the Bamenda City Council to avoid such incidents in the future.

After the incident, some politicians and groups, including the Archbishop of Bamenda, Andrew Nkea, followed President Biya's example and sent consolation messages.

The National Chairman of the Social Democratic Front, SDF, Hon Joshua Osih, visiting the market on Saturday, assured the victims that they will be compensated.

The Chief of Centre for the Army Rescue in Bamenda, Senior Warrant Officer Taku Paul, told reporters that since January there had been "about nine fire incidents" in Bamenda and that of last Thursday was the most destructive. 

Such fire disasters rampantly occur in several towns, especially big cities in the country and the firefighting service is often caught off-guard, due to lack of modern equipment, water; and even traffic jam.

An inferno with an identical magnitude like that of Bamenda, in recent memory, occurred in Marche Congo in Douala, where 170 shops were razed on Sunday, February 24, 2019.

Commendably before anyone could say Jack Robinson, the Minister of Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Nji, scampered to Douala on Thursday, February 28, 2019, at the behest of  President Biya, to hand over cash to some victims of the fire incident.

He distributed 32.5 million FCFA to the victims, to cushion the impact of the massive loss. That amount paled into insignificance, considering the ravage the fire caused.

But at least, it showed compassion, concern and help, rather than empty, often readymade messages of consolation to curry political favours.

Was there a commission before the Douala victims were given some cash assistance three days after the fire accident? Is there any guideline to determine which victims get compensated and how soon or it is left at the whims and caprices of the Head of State?

Whatever the answers, the victims of the Bamenda market fire are still waiting for government compensation. The sooner it comes, the better, so as to avoid the impression that traders in some markets get discriminatory treatment.

The bottom-line, however, is that there have been too many market fires in Cameroon. Firefighting services are not sufficiently available. 

For instance, in a Division like Fako, which is clustered with markets and has also been a victim of sporadic fires, there is no firefighting service.

Even in cities where the fire service exists, complaints are legion-scarcity of water to fill their tanks, traffic congestion that makes it hard to arrive at fire scenes in time or no modern equipment.

The cause of some of the market fires have at times been attributed to poor and fraudulent electrical connections, to avoid paying bills.

At The Guardian Post, we recommend what is done in other countries, even less developed than Cameroon. Traders should insure their shops. Councils, which are responsible for managing markets and collecting rents, have the responsibility to employ staff to go round the markets to carry out regular inspections on electrical connections.

Those measures will curb the alarming cases of market fires but when they do occur, firefighters should be sufficiently equipped to be able to extinguish the fires before serious havoc is done.

They can do that by using firefighting drones, which any city in Cameroon can afford to buy, since on average, they are cheaper than some of the luxury vehicles which mayors use.