Speaker’s wife recounts fire ordeal

House Speaker, Cllr. Fonati Koffa and family are still recuperating from Sunday’s fire disaster that destroyed their luxurious home here.  

By Emmanuel wise Jipoh 

Paynesville, Liberia, April 17, 2024—In the aftermath of Sunday’s 14th April 2024 fire disaster at Speaker Jonathan Fonati Koffa’s home, his wife, Mrs. Dama Reter Yekeson-Koffa, describes the late arrival of firefighters, especially from the Liberia Fire and Rescue Service, as unproductive and worthless.

Madam Koffa, an anesthesia specialist and Deputy Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the John Fitzgerald Kennedy Medical Center in Monrovia, told The NEW DAWN on Monday, April 15, 2024, that firefighters did little to save her home during the incident, leaving her and her entire family devastated.

”There was nothing really much that was done; they were here after 45 minutes, but we couldn’t appreciate anything really being done. As the blasting increased, we were left devastated, and I think the fire service was really unproductive and worthless. You cannot have a service like this here,” she narrates in apparent frustration over a situation that rendered the Speaker and his entire family homeless.

Mrs. Dama Reter Yekeson-Koffa

She further narrates that the fire erupted in the theater of her multi-million dollar home situated on Rehab Road in Paynesville outside Monrovia. It was characterized by the rapid spread of flames, which firefighters had no answer to upon their late arrival on the scene.

Madam Koffa: “We were in our room, getting ready to retire for the evening, and I had gone downstairs to get some food to eat. Amid that, one of our guards came alerting us that there was fire in the theater, and there was so much black smoke everywhere coming out. We couldn’t see anything, and there was uncertainty about where that fire actually was.”

She suspects that it might have been caused by an electrical fault, noting that as she ate supper, the guard came and alerted her that fire was in the theater upstairs, and there was huge black smoke everywhere. However, she observes, “Before that, there were a couple of times LEC went off, and when we put the generator on, LEC came back, and very shortly after that, the incident occurred.”

She describes the incident as devastating; however, she expresses gratitude to God because there was no casualty.

She notes that Liberia lacks a system for dealing with catastrophes, underscoring that only with systems will the country cope with frequent tragedies and prevent disasters. She laments that until this is done and systems are implemented, Liberia will continue to fall prey to devastating disasters.

“ I think we need to build systems in this country across all sectors; the Fire Service Department is one of those departments I think we don’t take seriously in this country and need to take very seriously because it is having devastating results and must be taken with urgency,” the Speaker’s wife further reiterates.

Placing monetary values on her losses, she reflects on priceless memories, including photos of family members and other essential documents, which, according to her, a million couldn’t give back. However, she states the value of the structure of their modern home as over a million United States Dollars.

 Addressing a news conference on Monday, 15 April, Speaker Jonathan Fonati Koffa described the incident as saddening while thanking his neighbors, who he noted were the first rescuers to prevent further damage.

He lamented that the incident left him and his family in complete shock, adding that while finding safety outside his home, former President George Manneh Weah, who resides in the same community, visited and provided him with two suitcases of clothes.

The Speaker revealed that besides the damage to properties worth more than a million dollars, there wasn’t any monetary or documentary damage, as his private safe and documents were kept in the basement of the house in anticipation of such an incident. Editing by Jonathan Browne