A fire incident in Gachie, Kiambu County, saw residents risk their lives to rescue a three-year-old girl from a burning fourth-floor apartment balcony.
Citizen TV reported on the scene where three men coordinated the daring rescue operation.
The fire broke out along Kiuna Road at around 5 p.m. on Saturday. Children playing nearby spotted smoke pouring from the window below. They ran to raise the alarm in the neighbourhood.
One child alerted a local school teacher that friends were trapped inside the house.
Bare-Handed Climb Up the Outer Wall
Hearing the alarm, local men rushed to the apartment block. Finding the main entrance locked, they forced open the gate and ran upstairs.
Joash Ondieki, a local teacher, scaled the exterior ledges and drainage pipes to reach the top floor. Thick smoke and intense heat filled the fourth-floor balcony.
Ondieki explained his reaction upon seeing the frightened girl stranded on the balcony.
"I did not want to fail that child, and I did not want to fail that child who was staring at us while shouting, ' Help, please help, please help. I had to do it,” Joash Ondieki, the rescuer, said.
Teamwork Amidst Heavy Smoke
Reaching the girl, Ondieki held her hand securely. Below on the third-floor balcony, Kevin Bahati and a colleague named Juma stood ready to catch her.
Bahati directed the operation from the floor beneath. He instructed Juma to maintain a firm grip as Ondieki lowered the girl down.
"Nikamwambia Juma usichoke kushika mtoto mtupe hapa chini penye tupa hapa floor namba tatu hapa," Bahati stated.
After catching the girl, the rescuers needed a safe way to carry her down. They cut a door curtain belonging to the mother. Juma strapped the child securely to his back using the fabric.
"Nikamambia Juma wewe funga mtoto kwa mgongo sisi tung’ang’ane kuvunja huu mlango wa chini ndio tupitie kwa ile nyumba ingine,” Kevin Bahati added.
The men then forced open a lower door to exit through an adjoining apartment. They rushed the child to hospital for immediate first aid.
Heartbreak and Investigation
Despite the successful rescue, the incident ended in loss. Two of the girl's siblings were trapped inside and perished in the flames.
Pathologists at the Nairobi Funeral Home conducted a post-mortem. The examination confirmed carbon monoxide poisoning as the official cause of death.
Detectives at Kihara Police Station in Kiambaa opened an investigation. Officers are investigating reports that the mother locked the children inside before leaving.
Their father, Kennedy Njau, demanded a full inquiry into the cause of the fire.
"Anyone mwenye anaweza saidia we get to know the cause of the fire na hii story isiende like any other story,” Kennedy Njau, father, said amid sobs.
