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Sikhumbuzo Moyo, [email protected]

THE Bulawayo City Council has refuted allegations that the fire brigade reacted slowly to a distress call for a burning house at Suburbs last week where it is further alleged that their fire engines arrived at the scene without water.

In a statement, council spokesperson Mrs Nesisa Mpofu said the fire brigade received a call at 2345hrs from a running caller and their fire engines stationed at the Famona Station took just five minutes to get to the burning property.

“On the 27 of July 2024, the City of Bulawayo Fire Brigade received a running caller (neighbour to the scene of the fire) reporting a property fire at 23:45 hours. Immediately, four fire appliances were dispatched to the address with a neighbour leading the appliances to the address. The Brigade took five minutes to get to the scene of the fire. Upon arrival, almost the entire main house was on fire and gaining momentum and two-thirds of the roof had already collapsed,” said Mrs Mpofu.

She said the fire had spread through the common roof to the entire house as the house had no separating wall and the fire was spreading from the western side of the house to the eastern part.

“The team started battling the fire of which four fire engines loaded with a total of 10 400 litres of water augmented by two fire hydrants were put into operation, firefighting operations and rescue operations for the property immediately commenced as soon as the firefighting teams arrived on site,” she said.

Mrs Mpofu said the city like all fire services all over the world relies on the hydrant system and carries enough water to allow time to connect to the hydrant.

She said the Fire Brigades team’s reaction time was one minute to leave the station and this was witnessed by the running caller who attested in written confirmation.

Mrs Mpofu said fire engines are always kept full of water and there is no given time where the fire engines will be without water.

“Eye witness remarks from the scene stated that the fire went on unreported to the Fire Brigade for quite some time as they did not have the correct number. They were calling 029271717 without the prefix of 02922. The neighbour who made the running call to the Fire Brigade indicates that he was also awakened by explosions resulting from the fire and he went out to investigate, only to find that it was a fully-fledged fire. He eventually drove all the way to Famona Fire Station to make a report and by that time the fire had spread to almost the entire house. The cause of the fire is suspected to have been an electrical fault which occurred 15 minutes after the restoration of electrical power,” said Mrs Mpofu.

She said two tenants Mr Lincoln Tshuma and Mr Victor Nkala, who live in the outbuilding, said they were the first to discover the fire as they heard what sounded like an explosion about 15 minutes after electricity had been restored as there was no electricity during the course of day. The two tenants said they pressed the security panic button to call the security company guarding the property which responded very late while they also tried different incorrect numbers to call the Fire Brigade without success.

“The Security Guard collaborated the story and said the fire had been going on for nearly 30 minutes before it was finally reported to the Brigade. The City of Bulawayo Fire and Ambulance Service is capable of handling any types of Emergency and Rescue operations. The Brigade has officers who have received international standard training that is recognised world over. We encourage residents to take note of the Fire Brigade Numbers and the prefixes. Residents are further encouraged to always call the Fire Brigade first before attempting to put out the fires on their own. The Fire Brigade can be contacted on 02922 71717-9 for all networks, 993 and 994 for landlines only,” said Mrs Mpofu.