—As Police Intense Investigation Gets Underway
IPNEWS: Uncertain remain high in Monrovia following a fire outbreak Sunday evening April 14,2024, which gutted the home of Liberia’s House Speaker Cllr. Johnathan Fonati Koffa.
Several eyewitnesses told the authoritative Independent Probe that the fire which gutted the home of Speaker Koffa located in Rehab Community started from the back of the house uncontrollably before members of the Liberia Fire Service were called in with the help of neighbors but to no avail.
It remains unclear what actually caused the fire.
So far, Speaker Fonati Koffa and family were evacuated from the scene leaving no casualty, however the home of the Speaker were seen blazing into the early hours of Monday morning.
As report on the fire outbreak spread, Spoon Network reported that the fire outbreak at Speaker Fonati Koffa’s residence could be linked to former House Speaker Bhofal Chambers’ maintenance personnel, who was working in the theatre at the home of Speaker Koffa when the fire broke out.
The whereabouts of the maintenance personnel only identified as Ben is still unknown minutes after the fire outbreak.
IPNEWS understand that officers of the Liberia National Police are currently on a manhunt for Ben.
Sources informed IPNEWS that the Home of the Speaker is connected to a dedicated private transformer rather than the general lines of the Liberia Electricity Corporation, and wonder how the fire outbreak could be attributed to power outage.
Experts have warmed that there is unprecedented prospect for continued fire outbreaks in and around Monrovia, if nothing is done to regulate the LEC lines which have been reenforced recently with an additional 25 megawatts from the Ivory Coast.
According to experts, the power currently enforced from Cote D’Ivoire’ are not broken down sufficiently which might have led to continue fire outbreaks across Monrovia and its environs.
Recently another fire incident destroyed six houses in the densely populated Township of West Point, including other cases of fire outbreaks in Central Monrovia, Old road, Paynesville, the Garnesville community, Bushrod Island among others which have left the destruction of properties valued thousands of dollars tons of citizens displaced.
