Mourners Rescue Casket as Hearse Bursts Into Flames en Route to Kakata Funeral

Published: July 18, 2026

KAKATA, Margibi — Grieving family members and bystanders pulled the casket of an elderly woman from a burning hearse Saturday morning in Kakata, moments before flames consumed the vehicle on its way to her funeral service, in the latest blow to a funeral home already under scrutiny for burying the wrong body last year.

The hearse, owned by Solomon Tubee Funeral Home, caught fire at about 7:30 a.m. near the VIP Road, close to Kakata’s main street, as it carried the deceased from the funeral parlor to St. Paul Lutheran Church in Lango Town. The driver, Patrick Tubee, the funeral home’s chief executive officer, escaped unharmed, and no injuries were reported.

Mourners and nearby residents rushed to the vehicle and removed the casket before the fire spread, sparing the remains from damage. The cause of the blaze was not immediately known.

Tubee told The Liberian Investigator the vehicle had shown mechanical problems before the trip. The hearse initially refused to start, he said, prompting workers to suspect it had run out of gasoline. Even after five gallons of fuel were added, the problem persisted until further intervention got the vehicle running.

While driving toward the church, Tubee said, he noticed unusual heat rising from beneath the driver’s seat. Moments later, bystanders began shouting that the vehicle was on fire.

“I immediately stopped and got out of the vehicle,” Tubee said, adding that nearby residents and mourners rushed to help him remove the casket before the fire spread throughout the bus.

He described the incident as a major setback for the funeral home’s operations and expressed hope that the Liberia Funeral Homes Association would provide support to help the business recover.

Saturday’s fire is not the first crisis to hit the Kakata funeral home. On May 30, 2025, Solomon Tubee Funeral Home came under public scrutiny after family members preparing to bury their relative discovered that the body presented to them was not their loved one but another deceased person who had mistakenly been buried days earlier and later exhumed.

That mix-up occurred during funeral arrangements for Ma Mary Massaquoi, whose body had been deposited at the funeral home about two weeks earlier. Management at the time described the incident as a technical error.