Kirinyaga County has witnessed a surge in fire incidents for the last two months of November and December 2023.

This is according to the county’s fire and disaster management officer John Kiama who said that fire incidents witnessed before the two months this year have however been relatively low compared to the previous year, 2022.

“The number of fire incidents in 2022 were slightly higher compared to this year although this appeared to change since early November towards December 2023,” Kiama told PD Digital.

Kiama attributed the rise in the incidents, which have left residents counting losses adding up to thousands of shillings, to the use of substandard cooking gas cylinders.

“Most preliminary investigations on the cause of these fires point on the use of substandard cooking gas cylinders purchased from non-licensed dealers, not forgetting the use of low-quality cookers,” he noted

He pointed out that 80 per cent of the incidents were caused by explosions of substandard gas cylinders.

“At least 80 per cent of fire incidents that we’ve dealt with are as a result of gas leakages,” he said.

The officer therefore urged residents to ensure that they refill their cylinders from legitimate dealers to avoid fire incidents in the future.