Three men are being celebrated as heroes in Gashie, Kiambu, after they braved thick smoke and intense heat to pull a toddler to safety from a burning fourth-floor apartment last Saturday, even as the rescue ended in devastating loss.
The drama began at around 5 pm when children playing in the neighbourhood spotted smoke billowing from a flat where three of their friends were trapped.
One of them sprinted to the road and alerted a teacher, telling her the house was on fire and that the children were still inside.
How the Daring Rescue Unfolded
The rescuers forced open the gate and charged up the staircase, where they found a three-year-old girl stranded on the fourth-floor balcony, flames closing in around her.
“I did not want to fail that child. I did not want to let her down. She was staring at us while shouting, ‘Help, please! Help, please! Help!” Joash Ondieki stated.
A rescuer identified as Juma clung to the child and gradually lowered her down to the third floor, where the other two men were positioned to receive her.
She was rushed to hospital and given first aid. The team then attempted to cut through a lower entrance to reach the other two children trapped deeper inside the flat.
“I told Juma to carry the child on his back as the rest of us worked together to break open the lower door,” one rescuer explained.
Their efforts came too late. The two sisters, Tehilah Wambui and Angel Njeri, never made it to the balcony. Both perished in the inferno, and their bodies were transferred to the Nairobi Funeral Home.
Kiambu Father Demands Justice
Their father, Kennedy Njau, attended the postmortem examination of his daughters’ bodies and is now pushing for a full investigation. He told authorities that the children had been locked inside the house by their mother before the fire broke out.
“Their mother herself said she had locked the children inside the house. She locked them inside and left, expecting that she would return later. Now she claims she does not know where the fire started,” Njau said.
He explained that the children had been staying with their mother over the weekend as part of a shared parenting arrangement between the two.
Left with more questions than answers, he is urging detectives at Kihara Police Station in Kiambaa to conduct a thorough investigation and deliver justice for Tehilah and Angel.
