FIREWORKS SUSPECTED TO HAVE CAUSED SUNDAY NIGHT FIRE AT DIANI’S LEOPARD BEACH RESORT
(Posted 11th February 2019)
Fireworks are suspected as the cause for yet another fire at the Leopard Beach Resort, which suffered the same fate seven years ago in June 2012, as was reported here at the time.
Reports of this fire first emerged not long after 11 p.m – 23.00 hrs local time – and the fire brigade reportedly arrived soon afterwards with two fire engines.
Guests meanwhile were being guided away from the fire area to assembly points from where they, and a fast growing crowd, watch the fire unfold.
Sources from Diani suggested that fireworks during a wedding reception went wrong when a makuti thatched roof caught fire after one of the devices fell on it, before the fire then spread to adjoining cottages.
The same sources also suggested that the damage to the resort, apart from burning the roofs of at several cottages, was not as extensive as in 2012 when the entire restaurant complex was consumed by fire. The resort closed at the time to facilitate repairs and rebuilding and re-opened later the same year.
Operations for the main hotel appear to be continuing this time given the more limited damage this fire caused to the resort.
