Earlier on Friday, November 13, fire gutted part of a commercial building in Gisozi Sector, Gasabo District, and destroyed properties valued at an estimated Rwf210 million.
The two-storey building, which is owned by Cooperative Duhahirane, is located at the popular Agakiriro Business Centre.
Traders who spoke to The New Times, said the inferno broke out at around 5am from a tailoring workshop that operates from the building and spread in five more trading spaces before the Police Fire and Rescue Brigade contained the fire.
When The New Times visited the place, a security team from Rwanda National Police and Rwanda Investigation Bureau were at the scene to investigate what might have caused the incident.
The razed properties include a store of electronic equipment, sewing machines and roofing equipment among others.
Venuste Habakurama, the Executive Secretary of the Cooperative, said in an interview that they don’t know what has caused the fire in the building which is home to over 400 traders operating different businesses.
"The building itself is insured and we are going to contact the insurer to help us restore the damaged space. We hope traders, too, have insured their businesses because we had mobilized them,” Habakurema said, adding that police and RIB were still investigating.
Juvenal Nsengiyumva one of the traders who owns a business on the building deals in electric and electronic supplies including electric cables, internet cables, alarm systems, lights and luxurious projectors among others.
His store, which had stock worth Rwf 130 million, is one of the six spaces destroyed by the fire incident, adding that he has an outstanding bank loan that he was trying to clear.
"My store is totally burnt down but, luckily, my business is insured. Of course, this is a big loss because I had clients to supply, and, instead of doing business, I am going to approach the insurer to help me pay the bank loan,” he said.
Despite fires being a common occurrence in the business centre, it is the first time the fire incident has happened at the building since 2010, when a ‘minor’ fire incident also gutted the area.
Series of fire incidents have over the years been reported at Gisozi Business Centre, including the one reported in Agakiriro Workshops in June last year, leaving properties worth around Rwf 20 million destroyed.
Last year’s back-to-back fires destroyed a lot of merchandise and materials that were valued at over Rwf2 billion and this included merchandise from hardware stores valued at Rwf1.5bn.