-In Paynesville
By Jerromie S. Walters
Paynesville, Liberia – A fatal late-night fire destroyed a three-bedroom home in Duport Road, behind the Baptist Field in Paynesville, claiming the lives of five individuals—including a pregnant woman—in one of Liberia’s unusual residential blazes in recent years. The tragedy took place late Friday, July 11, as neighbors tried to rescue the trapped victims, whose screams for help reflected through the neighborhood before being silenced by the rapidly spreading flames.
Eyewitnesses recounted harrowing scenes as locals rushed to break into the burning house but were forced back by the intense heat and smoke. “We heard the children crying for help, but the fire spread too fast,” said one neighbor. “By the time we tried to force open the doors and windows, the entire structure was already consumed.”
Despite their efforts, three children—two girls and a boy—perished before firefighters could arrive. A pregnant woman managed to escape with severe burns and was rushed to John F. Kennedy Memorial (JFK) Medical Hospital, where she succumbed to her injuries on Saturday, bringing the death toll to five.
The victims have been identified as siblings: Naomi Cole, the eldest, along with her younger sister and brother. Their father, S. Mardell Cole, shared his emotions, revealing that he had been estranged from the family after a bitter dispute with the children’s mother.
“She drove me from this house and sent me to court claiming that I wanted to kill her after we had born all the children,” Cole said. “She jailed me. I left this house and I am living somewhere else. Every month I send food money here. My birthday just passed [July 9]. Me and my children talked. The food I cooked I sent it here.”
The dismay father continued, “I told her school closed let the children go spend time with me she said no, she wanted to see the place first. Now my children have died.” Residents expressed frustration over the delayed arrival of the Liberia National Fire Service (LNFS), which they say could have made a difference in saving lives.
“By the time the fire trucks came, it was too late,” said another neighbor. “We need better emergency services in this community.” the Liberia National Fire Service (LNFS) has yet to confirm the cause of the fire The children’s mother, who was not home at the time of the incident, has not publicly commented.
A regular story:
Friday’s incident in Paynesville isn’t strange and it comes as one of several mysterious fire incidents across Liberia. In May of this year, Emmanuel Flomo, 8; Marcus Momolu, 12; Elizabeth Momolu, 6; and Lusu Kamara, 2—were asleep when flames engulfed their home Matadi Community. Their grandmother, who was also inside, survived after neighbors pulled her to safety. But for the children, rescue came too late.
Eyewitnesses said the fire began in the room of 12-year-old Marcus, where a mosquito coil had been left burning—a common practice in Liberian households to ward off insects. Wilfred Johnson, a relative of the family, recounted that the grandmother had given Marcus the coil before bed, unaware of the danger it posed. The Liberia National Fire Service (LNFS) confirmed in its preliminary report that the blaze likely started from the unattended coil.
On January 11, 2024, a fire in Caldwell, Benson Street, killed two children in the home of Mr. Moses Sneh. Just a day later, another blaze in New Kru Town’s Karpeh Street claimed three lives—a mother and her two children. By February 2024, the fires escalated. On February 8, Montserrado County Senator Saah Joseph narrowly escaped when his Congo Town home was engulfed in flames. Nearby, Elvis A. Tamba’s three-bedroom house was also destroyed. “I woke up to the smell of burning rubber,” Tamba recalled. “By the time I reacted, half my home was already in flames.”
The same month, a single mother in Omega, Paynesville, lost everything when her home burned down while she was out working. Having already lost her husband a year earlier, the fire left her and her children homeless. Days later, on February 21, five people—including three children—perished in a Duport Road fire.
The disasters continued into March 2024, with a seven-bedroom home destroyed in Barnesville and, just hours later, a school and church along Tubman Boulevard gutted by flames. The Apostolic Foundation High School fire endangered hundreds of students still in class.
Some fires have been linked to faulty wiring, others to negligence—like the unattended mosquito coil in this latest tragedy. But underlying it all some say is a “failure of enforcement”: clogged streets, illegal constructions, and a lack of public awareness on fire safety. Following previous incidents, the LNFS procured several fire trucks to help address what some saw as a fire crisis.
Also in early April, the Liberia National Fire Service (LNFS) intensified its fire prevention efforts with a safety awareness campaign in West Point, one of Monrovia’s most fire-prone communities. The initiative, held on Thursday, April 10, 2025, aimed to educate residents on hazard prevention and emergency response.
