Fire attacks Bishop’s Hill in Kumbo

A series of fires broke out at the vicinity of the Bishop’s House in Kumbo, causing immense damage to property. Emanating from the usual dry-season fires that farmers use to raze land before cultivating on it, the fire was blown by the wind into a nearby carpentry workshop, situated quite near strategic diocesan offices.

“I prefer a thief to visit one’s home than fire”, one fire-fighter stated, “Because the thief will only take selected items and leave the rest with the structure intact. Sometimes, people can even chase the thief away and everything will be safe”. In the morning hours of Thursday February 8, the sympathetic inhabitants of Kumbo were not prepared for any strenuous exercise when they were roused from sleep by alarms of wild fire that echoed down from the hill where Bishop’s House is situated.

The alarm completely woke the drowsy people, who rushed to the hill with one purpose and intent – to fight it. The presence of the Divisional and Sub-Divisional Officers, the students of St Peter’s College, St Augustine College and GBHS Kumbo, all in their respective official wears bore down on the raging flames without a thought for their safety, their sole concern being to save that hill from the unimaginable loss that the diocese would have sustained. From 10.00am to about 1.00pm.

More than 500 people milled around the hill, ferrying water and whatever material such as soil, banana suckers, and wet leaves, which they judged would help abate the flames. As the crowd fought valiantly, a new inferno behind them almost loosened their resolve, as they turned in astonishment to helplessly watch the Diocesan Construction Department consumed by the up-to-now un-noticed flames, as the building burned to the ground. In the early hours of the afternoon that day, when the fire at the construction department had died down, the tired fire-fighters were again taken by surprise. Another fire broke out in the surroundings of the Calasanzian Community. Without further waste of time, the people were again transported to the site where they successfully put it