CC image courtesy of kiambuthidj on Flickr
Kenyan government officials and its emergency response teams turned to social media this morning to publish updates on the massive fire that engulfed Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.
The Kenya Red Cross, the National Disaster Operations Centre and the principal secretary for interior among others used the platform to give live updates on the state of East Africa’s biggest airport.
The Ministry of Interior and Coordination went live with hourly updates confirming the fire as early as 6am EAT. It said the fire began shortly before 5am.
Response team from the airport, military, county council and G4S at the scene trying to put out the fire. Immigration area affected.
— Interior Ministry (@InteriorKE) August 7, 2013
The Ministry also used Twitter to announce the airport has been shut down and the diversion of all aircrafts to Eldoret, Kisumu and Mombasa international airports.
UPDATE: Apart from emergency landings, all flights into and out of JKIA have been canceled. Airport has been shut down.
— Interior Ministry (@InteriorKE) August 7, 2013
The Kenya Airports Authority, charged with the management of all airports in the country, were equally updating citizens and its passengers amidst rising speculations of the course of the fire.
The cause of the #JKIAFire is yet to be established.
— Kenya Airports (@Kenya_Airports) August 7, 2013
Kenya Airways, the country’s national carrier, used the platform to issue a statement and updates its passengers about the cancellation of all its flights.
Esteemed Guests, JKIA is closed due to the unfortunate fire incident , all flights cancelled please dont come until we update soon ^ HL
— Kenya Airways (@KenyaAirways) August 7, 2013
Kenya’s Red Cross also took advantage of the platform to update that no passenger or staff at the airport was affected by the inferno.
#JKIAFire at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport arrivals is contained no casualties reported so far pic.twitter.com/EUnTHZt3O8
— Kenya Red Cross (@KenyaRedCross) August 7, 2013
Popular blogger Dennis Itumbi, who was recently appointed the director of digital and new media in the office of the president, also joined the live updates.
Just in: fire at JKIA
— Dennis Itumbi (@OleItumbi) August 7, 2013
The fire comes just a day after flights from the airport were delayed due to a failure of a fuel pump system and days after the forceful evacuation and closure of duty free shops and personnel at the airport.
