A $50,000 two-storey house at Nailuva Rd in Suva was gutted by fire and the incident was reported in The Fiji Times on January 10 1981.
The six-bedroom house was reduced to an empty shell with everything inside burnt to rubbles. The families living in the building had blamed the Suva Fire Brigade for the loss of their house.
Brothers Nagin Lal, Kanti Lal, Thakor Lal and Mohan Lal were asleep in their rooms with their families when the fire broke out on the bottom floor at about 2.30am. Mr Nagin Lal told The Fiji Times the cause of the fire was unknown.
Mrs Thakor Lal had claimed the fire brigade arrived within 15 minutes but the small fire truck could not contain the blaze.
She had claimed she told the firemen to call for a bigger truck, but it arrived late when the fire had spread to the top floor.
She said the family members ran for their lives and were not able to save anything. “We have nothing to own now.”
The chief fire officer, Harold Henderson, said it was the material and other things that the families had stocked in their bulk store that caused the fire to spread so quickly.
He said the fire brigade machine and four men had arrived at 2.44am and attended to the fire six minutes later.
He said he had to call another engine when he knew the fire was beating them.
It arrived at the scene at 3.18am after it had to run a long way through to Raiwaqa because of congestion in the area.
The brigade had two engines and eight officers, including Mr Henderson, working hard and trying to do their best to put out the fire.
He said the men had considerable trouble trying to extinguish the fire.
At the height of the fire they were throwing approximately 400-450 gallons of water, Mr Henderson said, They did not use foam on this type of fire because of the nature of the goods in the house.
“Buying foam was too expensive – a gallon of it cost $10.
“Foam would not have made any difference anyway,” he said, Mr Henderson also said the store had a very deep hold and it was very difficult to get in.
He said it was one of the nastiest fires he had come across. The men were able to get the fire under control at 4.07am, he said.
A spokesman at the Fiji Electricity Authority said a few of their men were sent to the scene.
He said they were unable to get definite clues because the house was burnt out by the time they inspected it.
