The Sierra Leone Road Transport Authority (SLRTA), branch office at Pademba Road back of PWD, yesterday Tuesday was engulfed in an inferno that led to the loss of many important documents and equipment.
This information was disclosed by Mr. Patrick A.M. Musa, Vehicle examiner and Head of station, SLRTA, at Pademba Road.
According to Mr. Musa, they occupy one office in which they do licenses and also vehicle examination as one entity within the building. He stated that he received a phone call at around 4am Tuesday that their office is on fire.
According to Mr. Musa, the fire was as a result of the saw dust that was burned by the wood work department at PWD. He said they had made several reports about that to the National Fire Force so that the people at the wood work department will stop such act.
He disclosed that all the computers, documents and other office equipments were burnt down and even their statistics which are very important were nowhere to be found. He was however hopeful that some of the information that was lost will be recovered as the MIS are presently working on that.
“With the timely intervention of the National Fire Force, we were able to put off the fire so that it will not spread to other offices around,” he said.
According to Alhassan Bangura, Security at SLRTA office at Pademba Road, the fire came from the back face-board of their office where the wood work department burns their saw dust. He said they were on duty when they saw the fire from the back.
He disclosed that when the Criminal Investigation Department CID officers came to do their investigations, they met workers at the wood work department cleaning the wall where the fire is alleged to have travelled.
“This has been the practice since 2005, to date, I have made several reports to the police, National Fire Force for them to intervene and stop them from burning the saw dust as the smoke affects us greatly when working,” explained Mr. I.M. Sanganya, Head of Technical Department SLRTA.
He said they have made several attempt to talk to the head of the PWD workers, but whenever they go there, they will be directed from one office to another, and at the end of the day, they will not get any better response. He disclosed that at one point in time even the police have warned them from burning the saw dust at the place, but still they continued doing it.
Mr. L. A. B. Riddle, Senior foreman at the Wood Work Department PWD, admitted that the SLRTA management had been warning them in relation of the burning of the saw dust and that at the same time they have been coming to their rescue. He disclosed that previously, when there are heavy rains, they will deposit the dust at Samba Gutter, but when the rains stop they decided to store the dust inside a big unfinished building within the PWD compound.
He added that they were asked to pay some money to deposit the dust at bomeh were waste things are being placed for burning, adding that the cause of the fire might have been from the saw dust that was kept in the unfinished house were disables do their cooking.