National Fire Authority officer Puamau Sowane confirmed receiving reports of two fire incidents on Diwali last week after five years.

“In the last five years, we haven’t had any fires during Diwali, now we had two, one was early Thursday and the second one was on Thursday night, but going onto early Friday morning,” he said

He said the first fire on Thursday morning was in Lakeba Street, Samabula and the second in ‘Visama, Nausori early Friday morning.

“For the fire at Samabula on Lakeba street in the early hours of the morning, that house belonged to a 64-year-old Sajia Wati, probably she was cooking, but according to the report I received, it had a total of six family members occupying the house and no injury was reported,” he said.

“The call was received at the Totogo Police station and they called the 910 line and that’s how the message was received by us. It was a three-bedroom house so when our team arrived there, the house was fully engulfed, but I believe it was in preparation for Diwali.”

He said the house in Samabula was not insured and investigations were being conducted to determine the cause of the fire, however the second fire in ‘Visama, Nausori recorded one casualty. 

“So for the fire in ‘Visama, Nausori, we received the call at 1.38 hours, it was a four-bedroom house and it was already engulfed when our people arrived, but they managed to stop the fire from spreading to the other houses,” he said.

“The house belonged to a 30-year-old Amol Singh and was occupied by a total of five family members, unfortunately the 60-year-old Mrs Saviri Devi, a bedridden woman was the casualty. Mr Singh sustained injuries while trying to assist the family, members in escaping to safety.”

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