Some 2,500 persons were rendered homeless early Monday after fire razed about 20 houses in which they lived in Wroto town, adjacent to the runway of James Spriggs Payne Airport.

There were no casualties in the fire though properties worth thousands of US dollars that could be salvaged were destroyed.

But residents of Wroto town community suggested that unattended lit candles left by unidentified tenants during night hours might have been its origin.

Mr. Dixon Glay, a victim of the fire, narrated that he often saw candle lights at nighttime in most homes in Wroto town community, but could not state the exact cause of the fire which is being investigated.

Mr. Glay said he previously advised residents of the community to use battery-run Chinese lights instead of candles to light their homes.

“Now I am homeless. The fire consumed everything we had. I have 4 children to support plus my wife. Where do I go from here? No family member will want to host me with my children for more than a day,” the frustrated fire victim cried.

He said all the victims are appealing to the government for help “because we do not have any place to sleep tonight”.

Mr. Glay, a casual worker with the local garbage collection firm, Zoom Lion, said the fire broke out at midnight Sunday enabling many residents then awake to rescue all inhabitants.

He said fire firefighters of the Liberia National Fire Service and UNMIL arrived after the damage had already taken place.

Wroto town is not strange to fire disasters as fire has gutted several homes there in the past.

The disaster is the third fire incidence this month following those in the Amagashie community and Soul Clinic area.