Mentally-impaired family burns home

The mother and son were cooking at 2 am when the incident occurred in Deido, Douala.

Inhabitants of the Deido neighbourhood in Douala are still in shock after fire ravaged a villa inhabited by three families and tenants on Saturday, July 12 at 2 am. Efforts by the crowd and the Fire Fighting Brigade to extinguish the fire could not secure part of the building.

According to some eye witnesses, the mentally impaired who live in one of the rooms in the ‘boys quarter’, usually prepare food using things like cloth, leaves, wood and broken plastic material to rekindle fire.

On Saturday morning while others were sleeping, the two decided to prepare a meal.

The fire under the pot was too huge that the flames later became uncontrollable.

The family members only noticed the fire at a critical stage and screamed for help, but it was too late though the Fire Fighting Brigade prevented the fire from spreading to other houses.

Eye witnesses also said while efforts were being made to put off the fire, mother and son were laughing, parading and provoking the population.

To one of the family members, they cannot take the case to the forces of Low and Order since it is a family matter and the perpetrators are mentally unstable.