A fire station in Mombasa went up in flames on Friday because there was inadequate water to fight the blaze.

Embarrassed municipal fire fighters asked for help from the Kenya Port Authority to put out the inferno in their station.

Mombasa Town Clerk Tubman Otieno, however, jumped to the fire team’s defence, laying the blame on lack of adequate equipment.

Reduced to ashes

He said the council has been struggling to fight fires after protesting hawkers burnt down a state-of-the-art engine worth more than Sh50 million.

Mr Otieno said the cause of the fire had not yet been established.

“I visited the offices immediately after the inferno, but we have not yet established the cause nor the total loss to the council,” he said.

The council is refurbishing old fire engines to complement the two which are in service, the Nation learned.

But residents said the Thursday night fire showed how vulnerable the town was.

Mr Ali Hussein, who lives in the town, said: “It was sad watching property being reduced to ashes while fire engines were parked on the grounds because there was no water.”

The Mombasa Fire Brigade, on which thousands of people in the entire South and North Coast rely, has been in the spotlight for years due to poor service delivery.