First-Hand Account: Fire on Ebeye, Marshall Islands

On March 31, a huge fire broke out on Ebeye. Twelve family houses, the former KAJUR office that is now a living quaters for the hospital nurses, and the RMI Finance office which also houses the Heard Start kitchen, were destroyed.

The fire started late afternoon, after 5:00 pm, when one of the houses next to all the buildings that were destroy started the fire. Due to the strong winds, the fire caught the next two-story building (Senator Riklon's apartments) on fire and and spread out wildly to the other buildings around the area. Many of the residents of those buildings ran around in panic not knowing what to do. Despite all the efforts to control the fire, the fire continued with the wind blowing strongly as the sun set. The sad thing about the fire was that Ebeye does not have a fire truck that could have brought the fire under control. Ebeye has fire hydrants around the island that are old and have not been tested for sometime now. So the only way to control the fire was to bring in a backhoe/bulldozer to level some of the surrounding buildings to control the fire before it spread out, out of control.

The two-story building that houses the hospital nurses was completely burned down, as were all the residential buildings surrounding the former Coast Guard complex, and the RMI finance office. Because of the strong westerly wind, the object was to stop the fire before it spread out and reached the Kwajalein Atoll Local Government (KALGov), Kwajalein Atoll Development Agency (KADA), Republic of the Marshall Islands National Telecommunications Authority (NTA)offices. These offices are within feet of the RMI finance office that caught fire.

The United States Army at Kwajalein Atoll (USAKA) facility was notified about the fire and provided one of their air plane and the fire truck that was transported to Ebeye. Upon arrival, the fire was under control. Cause of the fire is still undetermined.

Our hand goes to USAKA for sending that fire truck, and many people from Ebeye and various departments that helped in controlling the fire from spreading to other buildings.

contributed by Wesley Lemari
Yokwe Online, March 31, 2005

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For more first-hand accounts, information and latest news about the fire and its aftermath, go to the discussion threads:
Current Events: Fire on Ebeye

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