Somali owned 5 star hotel turned to ashes

[Juje]

Somali owned 5 star hotel turned to ashes

 

Two Somali owned 5 star hotels located at the historical town of Bagamoyo some 60km from Dara-Salaam the capital city of Tanganyika has turned to ashes on Monday.

 

“In fact my Hotel was among the leading deluxe hotels in the town of Bagamoyo, and there were 280 workers working in the hotel, and the cause of the fire is yet mysteries, but investigations are underway to detect out the cause of the fire, the fire was very ferocious, and has annihilated money worth 10 million U.S$, but the goodness is that it is registered in the insurance company, the fire swiftly spread to another hotel in the next building owned by a Somali man as well, and it has also completely destroyed it, this hotel of mine was built in the year 1997, everything happens in the will of God the almighty and this simply a building in the world and thanks to God to what has hppend we are Muslims we should come up with strong and unshakable faith to what ever we come across evil or good” said the Abdullahi Noor Gulled the owner of hotel Paradise in Tanganyika speaking to Somaliweyn correspondent in the town of Arusha in Tanganyika.

 

Since the last effective central government in Somalia collapsed in the year 1991 the Somalis have scattered in the entire of the world and East Africa is one of the places where they have occupied most, in Kenya for instance they have big hotels and shopping malls.

 

Mohammed Omar Hussein +2521-5519235 shiinetown@hotmail.c om

[Juje]

Infernos expose Dar

 

 

 

Tanzania's lack of preparedness for major disasters was exposed yesterday after fire destroyed two famous tourist hotels in Bagamoyo.

 

As Paradise Holiday Resort and Oceanic Bay Hotel went up in smoke, another fire broke out in Dar es Salaam, destroying a house at Mbagala.

 

Earlier, firefighters rushed to the British Council offices in the city centre, only to discover that it was a false alarm triggered by a faulty warning system.

 

As they were attending to the situation, they received information that a fire had broken out at a house in Mbagala.

 

They arrived in Mbagala after about half an hour, but no sooner had they started putting out the blaze than they were notified that a major fire had broken out at two adjacent hotels in Bagamoyo.

 

Fire engines with sirens blazing set out for Bagamoyo, some 65 kilometres away, arriving after about an hour at around midday. It was, however, too late as the once-prestigious beach hotels were nothing more that smouldering shells.

 

Eyewitnesses said workers and guests at the hotels could only look on helplessly as fire ravaged the buildings for over three hours before dying down because there was nothing more to burn. Dense smoke could be seen rising high up into the clear sky from the site.

 

The fire started in the kitchen of the Paradise Holiday Resort, according to the front office manager, Mr Godfrey Runyungu.

 

He said the building in which the kitchen and restaurant were located caught fire after a gas tank exploded.

 

"The fire started around at ten in the morning, and was so fierce that the entire building was reduced to ashes in only 20 minutes. Strong winds from the ocean made things more complicated as fire spread to other buildings," he said, adding that nobody was injured.

 

The Dar es Salaam Fire Brigare was notified of the blaze at 11.54am, and the first fire engine reached the scene of accident at 12.47pm.

 

Residents of Mangesani and neighbouring areas were the first to arrive at the scene, but were helpless against the towering flames.

 

Paradise Holiday Resort chairman Guled Abdallah said he was thankful that nobody was killed in the incident.

 

"Everything has been destroyed�we tried our level best to save lives and we succeeded. Everybody is safe, but we have lost everything," he said.

 

He added that the hotel had 170 permanent employees and 30 part-timers, who all escaped unhurt.

 

Earlier, Oceanic Bay Hotel managing director Rahul Layan told reporters that the fire started at Paradise Holiday Resort, but added that he was not sure what the cause was.

 

"Strong winds blew the flames from Paradise Resort to our hotel. As you can see, everything has been destroyed. We have not been able to rescue anything apart from people who were working at the hotel when the fire broke out.

 

"The most important thing was to ensure that all our employees and guests were safe. It was impossible to salvage anything as he fire was very fierce," Mr Layan said.

 

Youths from surrounding villages had a field day, stealing anything they could lay their hands among the ruins.

 

Some of them could be seen walking away with items such as desktop computers, laptops, television sets and fire extinguishers.

 

A local resident, Mr Edgar Nazar, said some of the thieves arrived in canoes, which they used to ferry valuables looted from the destroyed hotels.

 

Bagamoyo District Commissioner Serenge Mrengo was among the first people to arrive at the scene.

 

He said the destruction of the two hotels was a �cruel� ; blow to the district.

 

"We have lost two important symbols of development in our district. It will take a long time to recover from this," he said.

 

Firefighters from Dar es Salaam extinguished the last smouldering remnants of the hotels at around 1pm.

 

The two hotels, particularly Paradise Holiday Resort, have transformed Bagamoyo from a sleepy coastal town - previously famous only for its rich history - into a major conference centre in Tanzania.

 

It was only last week that stakeholders in the tourism industry ranked Bagamoyo third after Dar es Salaam and Arusha among the focal areas for conference tourism in the country.

 

In recent years, the historic town has rivalled Arusha in hosting major conferences to the extent of forcing owners of conference venues in the northern town to travel all the way to Dar es Salaam to carry out aggressive marketing after noting that Bagamoyo was becoming a serious competitor.

 

Paradise Holiday Resort has hosted dozens of conferences and high-profile meetings since it opened its doors for the first time in 1998.

 

The facility started off as a beach resort with a few rooms, a restaurant, swimming pool and snack bar.

 

The establishment underwent major expansion from 2000 to 2004, with the focus being on conference facilities and the addition of more rooms to cater to a diverse clientele ranging from ordinary visitors to tourists and VIPs.

 

Oceanic Bay Hotel was put up on an adjacent plot. The two were the leading hotels in Bagamoyo Town, although other beach resorts cropped up in later years.

 

Source

[Jacaylbaro]

Subxaan ..........

[Thierry.]

Tragic incident, but I am proud of the resilience our people show inshallah they will be back on their feet

[Juje]

Local News

Fire guts two beach resorts

 

 

Two popular beach resorts in Bagamoyo, Coast Region, Paradise Holiday Resort and the Oceanic Bay Hotel and Resort were today reduced to ashes in less than fifteen minutes due to a fire that began in the kitchen of the former.

Hundreds of the fast growing seaside township’s residents rushed to witness the mid-morning inferno that is likely to render about 380 workers of the two hotels jobless. Eyewitnesses told the ‘Daily News’ ‘that the fire, which is believed to have been ignited by a gas cooker inside the Paradise Resort kitchen, spread fast to other parts of the hotel due to thatched roofs and the strong ocean winds.

“We had tea break at 10:30a.m. before heading back to the seminar room. After just five minutes of business, the electricity went off. We continued with our session as we did not know what was going on,’’ a hotel guest said. Another seminar participant said it was when they decided to open the windows for air, when they heard people screaming outside.

‘We got outside only to see fire and smoke all over… we had to run for our lives,” said Mr Donath Mlawila, who was at the hotel, instructing a five-day course for Tanzania Roads Agency (TANROADS) officials. Other witnesses said that the second hotel, Oceanic Bay Hotel and Resort, caught fire when most of its staff went to offer a helping hand to the nighbouring Paradise.

The fire crossed to their hotel without their knowledge, only to realize it when the situation was out of hand. The owner and Chairman of the Paradise Holiday Resort, Mr Abdullahi Nur Guled, said that the total investment of the hotel, which was built in 1997, was 10 million US dollars (more than 13bn/-. He, however, said that the hotel was insured.

 

“We could not save anything… the fire began at around 11:30 am. Within 15 minutes, the whole hotel was on fire. Everything is burnt completely,” said the hotel’s Operations Manager, Mr Shukri Ali. The fire did not cause any fatalities except for the massive loss of property. Several cars parked at the hotel were burnt in varying degrees, including a four-wheel drive Nissan Patrol vehicle that was burnt beyond repair.

 

Two Toyota Land Cruiser vehicles, one belonging to TANROADS, Mbeya Office, and another to Mr Mlawila, were partly damaged. “When I saw the car partly destroyed, I could not believe my eyes because I failed to take it away as I had left ignition keys in my room which was on fire,” said Mr Mlawila, who said that he had borrowed the car from his friend.

 

By the time it was gutted by fire, the Paradise Resort had 89 guests in 82 rooms, with 70 of them participating in four meetings, including 21 TANROADS regional managers from all Mainland regions. “This is the low season, when we make between 60,000 US dollars and 80,000 US dollars (about 78m/- and 94m/-) per day, but we used to reach up to 100,000 US dollars (about 130m/-) per day during peak season.

 

These include accommodation costs, conference costs and all other services,” said Mr Ali. The Paradise is prominent for hosting different government and private meetings. It has 95 rooms and employs 180 people on a permanent basis. “Many people will lose their jobs due to this…not only our employees, but also other people who were supplying us with various goods and services,” said Mr Guled.

 

The Oceanic Bay Hotel General Manager, Mr Rahul Nayar, said the hotel had employed 200 workers but declined further details on grounds that the owner, who is in Dubai, was the only one to give such details. Bagamoyo District Commissioner Serenge Mrengo said that the district was going to suffer economically from the loss of the two hotels.

 

“This is a challenge to hotel owners who prefer thatched roofs. The fire this time spread faster because of the thatched roofs,” said Mr Mrengo. Due to lack of fire tenders in the district, the fire in the two hotels had to be extinguished by fire brigades from Dar es Salaam and Kibaha. “This is a problem for us. We have already ordered four such vehicles for our district and paid 400m/- for them. But delivery has not yet been effected,” said the DC.

[Malika]

Atleast there were no human casualty,its quite a distance where the fire brigade had to come from.There aught to be a fire station in Bagamoyo, the old town has grown signifcantly over the years.

 

As for the Somalis whom own those Hotels,can I just say,they are very capable of eracting grandier ones[loaded wayee hee]

[Kashafa]

everything happens in the will of God the almighty and this simply a building in the world and thanks to God to what has hppend we are Muslims we should come up with strong and unshakable faith to what ever we come across evil or good” said the Abdullahi Noor Gulled the owner of hotel Paradise in Tanganyika speaking to Somaliweyn correspondent in the town of Arusha in Tanganyika

Respect, Ina Noor Gulled. Saas aa nalaga rabaa.

[NGONGE]

^^ The Hotel was fully insured, saaxib.

[Kashafa]

^^ , i didn't read that part, lol, you are one cynical dude. give the brother some credit.

[Naxar Nugaaleed]

5 Star? I don't think there are Somalis who have 5 star hotels. To be a 3 star you probably have to have a top of the line restaurant and ...

[General Duke]

^^^NN come on you dont know every Somali owned business in the world. The groups in Tanzania and Zambia are probably some of the most affluant of Somali's.

 

Its an incidnet if it was insured its ok, they will rebuild it.

[Fabregas]

Originally posted by Kashafa:

quote:everything happens in the will of God the almighty and this simply a building in the world and thanks to God to what has hppend we are Muslims we should come up with strong and unshakable faith to what ever we come across evil or good” said the Abdullahi Noor Gulled the owner of hotel Paradise in Tanganyika speaking to Somaliweyn correspondent in the town of Arusha in Tanganyika

Respect, Ina Noor Gulled. Saas aa nalaga rabaa.

It's a hotel which caters for naked tourists and sells alcohol. dee ninyow.

[Goodir]

^That does not count. Remember the formula dee.

[Belial]

Tragic indeed.

[Allamagan]

what a sad news! Mahad is a good friend of mine I was there last year and man the hotel was truly a paradise on earth in every sense offering a magnificent seaside holiday atmosphere. As guest of honour, I had the privilege of spending three full days with my own driver and guide last year, for sure the Hotel and Bogamoya, a historic town itself had big impact on me and am already missing it! Below is the picture of what once was Paradise Holiday Resort in Bagamoya, Tanzania.

 

 

The good news is tho they were insured and I am 100% sure that Mahad and his family will not give up and will bounce straight back from this stronger and better IA.