Over one hundred motorbikes owners gathered on the 9th September, 2022 at Kamenge zone to get registered in effort to find a way forward after the incident on the flamed gas station.
Authorities of Kamenge zone in Northen Bujumbura gathered around 130 people who lost their motorcycles while a fire erupted on the 7th of September when they queuing on the pump.
Around 130 motorcycles and 6 tri-cycles were burnt in this accident at the BUPP station owned by Gabriel Ntisezerana,” said Jérôme Harimenshi who works at the gas station
“My office is at the station, I lost almost everything inside. Only was left some materials,” added Harimenshi
“We are still investigating the source of the fire and the total number of motors lost and all destroyed things in that incident”: said the spokesman of the police Pierre Nkurikiye.
The incident came while there is fuel scarcity in Bujumbura capital city as well countrywide. This shortage had governed long rambling lines to stations where gas is serviced.
Most of drivers spend more than 48 hours queuing on stations.
As for the police authorities, they said that investigations have started to know the cause of the fire, however, they did not specify the number of the loss.
“People who have cars, motorcycles and buildings have to insure themselves in different companies of insurance to anticipate total loss when these incidents happen,” said Pierre Nkurikiye, the spokesperson of the police.
Motorcycle owners have cried foul as they called upon the government to assist them.
Citeretse Alphonsine who lost four motorcycles cannot understand as she said that maybe the fire came from pump dysfunction.
“The fire may have been caused by the pump which conducts the fuel that might had a problem,” said Alphonsine met while registering at Kamenge zone.
As the fire went on burning people fled, and no one was wounded or died, according witnesses.
However, insurance might pose some problems as some of the motorcycles were not insured.
Joseph Ngendakumana a motor driver said that some among them have not yet signed contracts with insurance companies.
However, insurance companies said that they don’t assist any kind of accident, but depending on how the accident occurs they sometimes do.
According to insurance entities, most of the motorcycles pay insurance fee concerned with public liability (RC: Responsabilité Civile), this is when a driver bumps someone or has a direct problem with a motorbike.
“This is because it [RC] is mandatory,” said N.H.T one of the workers of SOCABU a state-owned insurance organization.
For other companies it is the same story.
“We assist people with whom we have contracts the time they get accidents”: said the director of the Business Insurance and Reinsurance Company (BIC) Joël Ngendabanka.
I may inform also customers whose motorcycles have been burnt in the BUPP gas station that our company assists only those who get accidents while driving, added Joël.
On his twitter account on Saturday, the president of Burundi Evariste Ndayishimiye conveyed his deepest condolences to all people whose motorcycles went to pieces in the fire that broke out inside the station in Kamenge on Thursday..
He furthermore, appealed to the administrative authorities and insurance companies to facilitate the compensation procedures.
The story was written by Nahimana Jean Noël, Fellow at Inside Burundi, additional reporting, edited and approved for publication by Espoir Iradukunda
