A sudden fire accident–the cause of which is yet to be confirmed–broken out in Dire Dawa town on Wednesday night near an Oil Station; but, luckily, the fire brigade managed to control it before it set blaze the oil station, marked as Oil Libya, which created a temporary panic among residents, The Reporter has learnt.
But police told The Reporter that this fire accident was not believed to be linked to the ongoing wave of protests spreading in vast areas of the Oromia Regional State.
According to the information obtained by The Reporter, the fire suddenly broke out around 7:30 PM from its warehouse and latter damaged stores used by the oil station.
Though the accident threatened the oil station and the suburban area located near the station, the fire brigade was able to contain the spread of the fire within an hour’s time before engulfing the oil station and the flammable oil depot.
The fourth-most populous city in Ethiopia, Dire Dawa is the only federal city apart from Addis Ababa on account of the ethnic composition of its resident population.
Dire Dawa is located 523km to east of Addis Ababa and it is one of densely populated towns with an estimated population of one million people residing and running daily lives in residential as well as business housings built in converged manner. Apart from its hot weather condition averaging 30 degree Celsius, the town is highly prone to fire accident and flooding.
Dire Dawa is made up of two distinct settlements separated by the Dechatu stream (seasonal river), which for most of the year is only a dry bed but during the rainy season flushes into a torrent.
To the country, fire accidents have been a common phenomenon in most urban locations damaging business areas, residential holdings and sometimes factory facilities.
