Week 8: Blog post 2b: Africa: Senegal : Fire Tears Through Senegal Religious Festival, Killing at Least 22

 The article, "Fire Tears Through Senegal Religious Festival, Killing at Least 22" describes the disaster erupted during the Daaka festival in Medina Gounas and delivers the scale of damage, background information, and the reaction of the government. On April 12th, 22 people were killed, more than 100 people were injured, and buildings were destroyed by the fire which had grown bigger because of the wind that built up at the beginning of the rainy season. There were similar accidents in 2010 and the government had proposed to fireproof several buildings but the Islamic community refused to make any changes to the structures thinking that they might destroy their spiritual significance which eventually led to yesterday's disaster. The president who will visit the site on Friday plans to suggest the spiritual leaders consider the fireproofing plan again, even though Medina Gounas is a much more conservative country than most of the others. This newsletter presents the fire occurred during the Senegal religious festival in the order of the size of the damage, some facts before this incidents, and the action of the government after the tragedy.

 The article reminded me of the fire I had accidently grown big when I was in elementary school and I remember the reason I started it, how it got spread out and the lesson from which I've learned. The fact that I enjoyed playing with fire and that I was a curious boy who was into science made me think 'Does a vinyl bag catch fire?' so I went into a middle school at night and ignited one of the dumps. On the contrary to my poor guess, the vinyl bag burned easily as if the fire was lava and it began to spread over to other vinyl bags so quickly, giving me not enough time to tread it out. The whole dump burned down and I realized that fire is not a thing I should be "playing" with and I should be well aware of the safety precautions before dealing with any hazardous material later on as a scientist. The news conjured up my memories of fire which I thoroughly remember why I had started it, how things burned and what I've learned from that experience. 

Barry, Jaime Yaya. "Fire Tears Through Senegal Religious Festival, Killing at Least 22." The New York Times. The New York Times, 13 Apr. 2017. Web. 30 Apr. 2017.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/13/world/africa/senegal-fire-daaka.html?_r=0