A senior official in South Sudan’s Yei River County said lack of fire extinguishers is a major challenge putting the town at high risk of possible fire outbreaks during this year’s dry season.

Joseph Laku, Director of Fire Brigade in Yei, told Radio Tamazuj that he had presented several reports and concerns to the relevant authorities, but without any positive response so far.

He further said his office registered many cases of fire outbreaks at Hai Simba, Lomuku, Kanjori and sobe areas of Yei town last year. Laku called on the state authorities to lobby for mobile fire trucks in the town.

Joseph urged the county administration to survey all the residential areas to enable fire brigade officers to access the town in case of any danger.

Laku also advised local residents to control their children from the use of fire flames during the dry season.

“Yei town at the moment is not far from Juba and its cases of fire outbreaks are common, and to make  matters worse, most of the buildings are made out of thatch and grass compared to Juba,” he said.

For his part, Denis Lasuba, Yei River County Commissioner, called on the local residents to clean up their homes to avoid fire outbreaks.“Yes, we are now in the dry season and my humble call on the residents is that let us keep our surroundings clean so that we are not threatened like what happened in some areas some years back,” he said.