Gudele fire victims cry for help

“We are not sure how we are going to continue with our lives because my family and relatives were surviving in this shop of mine.”

This was a painful punchline by Juma Gabriel, a trader who lost all his business in the fire that gutted shops in Gudele One on Monday.

 “I lost the big machine that I brought from Khartoum, including generators and tools in the shop. I had timbers and finished furniture ready for sale and some money, and it all got burnt. As I talk, nothing is left for me and the family, ” the teary Gabriel recounted as he looked helpless, drained by the thoughts of having to begin life afresh in the unforgiving economic environment healing from COVID-19 impacts.”

Like Gabriel, several other traders whose shops got burnt in Gudele expressed doubts about whether they would recover from the losses and return to business.

The fire broke out from one of the shops marked No. 3 on Monday noon and went on to reduce 28 shops to ashes.

The traders were dealing in the production of furniture, including chairs, beds, and tables, among others.

Each shop had generators and big machines for carpentry work installed inside.

Nowhere to turn to

The City Review visited the scene yesterday and found the traders milling around the place trying to figure out their next move. A lot of them were dejected. Gabriel, for instance, said he had no place to go to get a loan to support his family.

 “We were not able to rescue our shops because the fire took only five minutes to reach our shops, which is a little bit far from where it began and we could not put it off,” Juma said. 

Marko George, another victim, told this newspaper that his belongings that got burned cost nearly $15,000.

He said there were several machines and furniture in the shop.

“Tomorrow we are going to the Muniki block of the Juba City Council to meet the authorities so that we can explain to them the problem we have at the moment,” George said.

Some of the things we lost are innumerable. We had many things, especially furniture. Many people booked from me and some paid for it. Now I lost everything to compensate for that, which is a problem, ” he added.

One of the victims, Grace Gune, who is a restaurant owner who also lost everything, including money, said she was hopeless.

She said she had no money to buy things for the children for Christmas, including other preparations for next year.

“I have more than three children who are in school. I did not save any money for their school fees because I was trusting the business, now everything is gone,” Gune said.

This is the second time that fire has razed down shops in Juba within two weeks.

Two weeks ago, at least 62 shops and 108 kiosks were destroyed by fire at the Custom market, which caused damage to property worth over SSP 100 million, the Juba City Council said.

The busy market caught fire on Monday evening when most traders had closed their shops.

The traders were left shocked, as most of them did not know where they could start from after their shops were razed down.

In 2019, a similar incident happened in the Konyo Konyo market and most traders were left stranded after their shops burnt down to ashes.

However, the Mayor of Juba City Council at the incident site in Gudele 1 advised traders to put permanent building when planning to start a business to avoid losses from fire.