A fire outbreak has destroyed the office of South Sudan’s Minister of Roads and Bridges in Juba, with no injuries reported. The fire broke out early Wednesday morning at the Ministry of Roads and Bridges. The ministry’s Undersecretary, Gabriel Makur Amour, said an electrical short circuit is suspected to have caused the blaze.
Makur Amour said the full extent of the damage will be determined following an investigation by a team assigned to establish the cause of the fire and assess the losses.
The Commissioner-General of the National Civil Defence Service, Lieutenant General Redento Loro Karlo, said a Fire Brigade unit responded promptly to the incident and managed to contain the fire before it spread to other offices within the ministry.
Yel Bol, Director-General for Administration and Finance at the Ministry of Roads and Bridges and a witness to the incident, also described the initial moments of the fire outbreak.
The incident has triggered discussion on social media, with some members of the public questioning the government’s preparedness to protect public buildings from fire outbreaks.
The concerns come months after a fire reportedly destroyed parts of the security facility commonly known as the “Blue Houses” in Juba, prompting renewed public attention to fire safety and emergency response capacity in government premises.
Authorities have not yet released an official estimate of the financial value of the damage caused by Wednesday’s fire.
