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2009 Nakumatt supermarket fire
Deadly fire in downtown Nairobi, Kenya / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The 2009 Nakumatt supermarket fire occurred when a supermarket in downtown Nairobi, Kenya, caught fire on 28 January 2009. Twenty-nine remains were located in the rubble of the destroyed Nakumatt supermarket, with police investigating a tip that security guards locked exit doors in an effort to prevent looting.[1] However the locking of the doors on the ground floor had no effect on the victims, as they were all found on the floor above. The fire allegedly started near the only staircase accessible to the public, trapping the victims in the shop. One other man died after leaping from the building to escape the flames. Forty-seven people are still missing. The bodies of the dead are "charred beyond recognition".[2]
![]() | This article may be excessively based on contemporary reporting. (March 2024) |
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Official reports said one person died in the hospital from injuries brought on by poisonous fumes and injuries sustained in the inferno but another 39 were unaccounted for and were officially reported as "missing".[3] The emergency services were criticised for what the Kenyan media viewed as an inadequate response to the blaze. Following the blaze, the Daily Nation reported that Nairobi's three million inhabitants were served only by one fire station situated close to a traffic-choked business district.[4] Although it happened on 28 January, it was not widely reported across the world until two days later when the full scale of the fire was recognised.