Rubles of store burned at Hai Malakal on Thursday night. (Photo: Kafuki Jada)

Several traders and residents of Hai Malakal in Juba are counting loses after fire gutted a store and damaged buildings on Thurday night.

The mysterious fire reportedly erupted inside a family house, before escalating to a store for motor-vehicles spare parts.

The buildings burned for the whole night, until Friday morning at the commercial neighborhood. But there was no report of casualty.

One of the affected traders, who chose to be named only as Joseph says he was at home when the fire broke out.

“At around midnight that’s the time they called me and they told me our business place has caught fire,” he said.

“I had to call my friends, my colleagues and we had to rush to the work place and we found that there was fire everywhere and I don’t really know what time it really started.”

By the time he arrives the scene, Joseph said everything was already consumed in the fire.

“We had to rush to the work place we got fire everywhere in the store, and where people were keeping the items got burned completely.”

Eye Radio reporter visited the scene and obtained a video footage showing traders searching through the rubles – for what might have survived the fire.

Witnesses said the inferno tore through a two-flat building, before gutting the store and damaging several other shops – leading to an estimated loss of millions of dollars.

Wol Bak is one of the residents affected by the disaster. He said the two-block house burned in the fire belongs to his family.

“We were here at around 11 pm, and fire started and there two women, so we took them outside of the house.”

“As you can see, now our house is burned down to ashes. We can’t even understand where it really started from, there is no particular reason our neighbors are saying its electricity but we don’t have electricity we mostly use solar.”

Fire outbreaks are commonly reported in Juba and other parts of the country, especially during the dry season.