On the 15th anniversary of the Al-Queda bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, a huge fire has destroyed the arrivals terminal of the Nairobi airport, crippling international travel and delivering a huge economic blow to Kenya.
I heard about this several hours ago on NPR while driving in my car. Since then I have checked cable channels CNN and MSNBC, but not a peep.
International news sources are reporting that
The fire started in the airport's international arrivals and immigration area at around 05:00 (02:00 GMT) and spread quickly. Dark smoke was seen billowing into the sky above Nairobi as the blaze took hold.
Passengers arriving on international flights - some still in their seats - reported hearing explosions from the terminal building.
"When I arrived there were one or two fire engines parked outside the international arrivals. It spread very fast,'' British passenger, Martyn Collbeck, told the Associated Press. "I would have expected more fire engines to respond faster."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/...
Response to the fire was delayed because of lack of working equipment and clogged roads leading to the airport.
Nairobi’s most respected paper, The Daily Nation, reported last month that Nairobi County doesn’t have a single working fire engine. One engine, the paper said, was auctioned off in 2009 because the county hadn’t paid a $100 repair bill. Many of the responding units to Wednesday’s fire were from private security firms.
An Associated Press reporter on the scene saw uniformed officers line up with buckets in hand, apparently to battle the blaze.
“I would have expected more fire engines to respond faster,” said a British passenger, Martyn Collbeck, who had been scheduled to fly to London on an early morning KLM flight.
France24
All international travel has been rerouted, but the domestic terminal is back in operation.
Nairobi is the busiest airport in all of east Africa.
So far there are no indications of what caused the fire, but the explosions and fire erupted at 5 AM when many international passenger flights are scheduled for arrival and departure. Fortunately, there have been no reported injuries.
Are there any Kossacks in Kenya? Does anyone have further information on this fire?
UPDATED 5:59 PST:
Boniface Mwaniki, head of the anti-terror police unit, said there was no connection with “terrorism.”
“We don’t want to speculate, but at this stage we do not think there is any such link,” he told Reuters. “Even if we are commemorating the 15th anniversary of the bomb blasts, we don’t think it is terrorism.”
Nevertheless, authorities had beefed up security at the airport and key installations in east Africa’s biggest economy.
Security analysts said there was no indication of any link to Islamists that Kenyan soldiers are battling in neighbouring Somalia as part of an African Union force.
“It doesn’t bear the hallmarks of an al-Shabaab operation but one never knows,” said a regional security analyst, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Globe and Mail
The Kenyan authorities are in total disarray as regards their delayed response to the fire. Under the circumstances, we can only wait and see.