By Mama A. Touray
The public relations officer of the Brikama Area Council, Lamin Sighateh, in a telephone interview with The Fatu Network, stated that the Brikama Area Council is yet to establish the cause of the Sandinka fire incident.
“There are different things said by different sources on the ground, but for us, we understand that the fire started as early as 3 a.m. However, as we speak, we have not yet established the cause of the fire,” he said.
Sighateh also emphasized that when such incidents happen, everyone carries different opinions, noting that the most important thing for people to know is that the Brikama Area Council is yet to establish the source of the fire.
“We believe that it’s the job of the fire service to constitute a task force committee, which they have already established, to help determine the cause of the fire. Any moment we establish the source of the fire from relevant authorities, we can conclude as to the source of the fire,” he advised.
He added that the police have secured the area to allow the fire service to carry out the necessary work in determining the cause of the fire.
Regarding the number of fire stations in the West Coast Region and their distance from Sandinka, he said, “We have a fire service in Brikama, Airport Junction, and around Kanilai, making it three fire stations within the West Coast Region. The one in Brikama is not even a kilometer from Sandinka, but one can say it’s probably between 500 meters to 800 meters.”
Sighateh, however, informed this medium that they are working closely with relevant stakeholders, such as the National Security Council, the Regional Police Command, the Ministry of the Interior, and other stakeholders, to ensure the swift relocation of the vendors and to continue the investigation into the cause of the fire with the task force already constituted.
He said that when they were informed about the incident, the management of the council, including Chairman Darboe, the CEO, and councilors, visited Sandinka and were subsequently joined by the National Security Council under the leadership of the Minister of the Interior.
