At 9 p.m. on 15 Feb., the city of Dar es Salaam shook and the sky turned into shades of red and orange.

Unsuspecting residents of the city were either sitting down to eat with their families or getting ready to go to bed.

At first, some people thought the explosions were fireworks for the Maulid Day celebrations, but as the explosions got louder and the sky turned brighter, they knew something was wrong.

“I was watching television when I first heard the explosions,” History teacher Victor Chigumbu said. “I wasn’t very much moved by it because the idea that bombs had exploded nearby never came to my mind.”

At an ammunition depot at the Gongo La Mboto military base, there was an accident that set off bombs at the depot.

As the explosions continued, they started spreading to the other weapons depots at the camp. More than 23 depots were destroyed.

The explosions went on for approximately one and a half hours.

“The explosions sounded like thunder at first. We all thought it was going to rain,” Miriam Charles, grade 8 said.

“But when I looked at the sky, it had turned into a bright shade of red and I could see bright sparks fly into the air after each explosion.”

The news started spreading through phones and text messages.

During the first hour, the explosions were very frequent-coming at intervals of two to three minutes.

During the last half hour, the explosions started to subside. By twelve, no sounds were heard.

The next morning, the horrors of the previous night unfolded.

At least 32 people died, more than 4000 people including the elderly and children were displaced and two residential houses and a secondary school located nearby had been destroyed.

According to the Guardian newspaper, the few hundred that were injured were admitted to Amana hospital, Muhimbili Hospital and Muhimbili Orthopedic Institute.

The ones displaced were rehabilitated at the National Stadium.

The airport was closed after the blasts and residents were encouraged to stay inside their homes.

Debris had been hurled as far as 10 km away from the base camp.

Organizations like Red Cross, Pact Tanzania and Save The Children have been working hard to improve the lives of the affected.

As the Red Cross goes around the city collecting items for the victims, Save the Children and Pact Tanzania are working to ensure that these items reach the people who are in need of them.

Haven Of Peace Academy and The International School of Tanganyika also collected items for the affected from the students and teachers.

Recently, IST and HOPAC took the items collected to The Little Theatre and the Red Cross handled them from there.

HOPAC has received donation objects like clothes, beverages, food items, mosquito nets and toiletries, and has collected more than 375,000 tsh.