Some offices of a three-storey building hosting certain services of the Defence Ministry such as the general control of the army, inspection general of the army and military logistical service, was October 7 consumed by fire.

The building, known within military circles as the Pentagon, serves as offices of Army Generals.The fire, whose caused has been linked with electricity problems, broke out at about 6 pm.

When The Post reached the venue of the incident some 30 minutes later, elements of the Fire Fighting Brigade had put out the fire, while traffic along the stretch of road between Mess des Officiers Junction and the Reunification Monument was interrupted as a heavy armoury from the army; gendarmerie and the police jammed the vicinity.

Even though none of the officials at the scene was willing to comment, a group of boys that took part in the 'rescue mission' pointed at the office of one General Jean Nganso, noting that everything in the office was reduced to ashes. They said official documents as well as personnel effects of some of the top military officials were lost in the fire.

On the probable cause of the fire, one of them said he suspected electrical short-circuit. He could, however, not state the exact number of offices that were touched by the fire.

Other Generals, whose offices are in the building, The Post learnt, include James Tataw; Pierre Semengue, Taka Songolo and Jean René Youmba.

Following the fear that gripped the entire military corps as a result of the incident, the Defence Minister, Remy Ze Meka, paid a visit to the site October 8 in order to get first hand information on the cause of the fire as well as assess the damages recorded.

The Post learnt that the building, which was formally a hotel constructed in the 1960s and renovated some ten years ago to host the military services has been suffering from insufficient supply of electricity. It was said on that fateful day, electricity supply to the building had gone off and when it was re-established, a fire outbreak was reported an hour later.

Computers and accessories were reportedly destroyed as a result of the fire disaster.

It should be recalled that in 2001, a strange fire gut down an armoury at the military headquarters in Yaounde.