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Raymond Jaravaza, [email protected]

THE Bulawayo Fire Brigade responded swiftly, arriving within seven minutes to save three trucks and surrounding buildings from being destroyed by a raging fire that gutted a warehouse at Cotton Printers in the Belmont industrial area yesterday afternoon.

The fire obliterated property stored inside the warehouse, which belonged to Cotton Printers, a textile company that has been struggling with viability challenges for several years.

Chief Fire Officer Mr Mhlangano Moyo stated that the Fire Brigade arrived at the scene seven minutes after receiving the call about the fire.

“We received a report of a grass fire at Leeds Street in Belmont, and upon arrival, the Fire Brigade discovered it was no longer just a grass fire. The call was received at 13:08, and we arrived at the scene at 13:15. By then, the grass fire had spread into Cotton Printers, igniting disused plastic drums and cotton waste inside a warehouse constructed of zinc and metal frames,” said Mr Moyo.

The Fire Brigade had to call for additional resources to combat the intense blaze. “We mobilised more resources to the scene by bringing in five fire engines. We managed to save the main building and three trucks that were parked inside the premises,” he said.

Firefighters put out a blaze at Cotton Printers in the Belmont industrial area yesterday

Despite the area experiencing water shedding, the Fire Brigade utilised a 10  000-litre water carrier in addition to the five fire engines to bring the situation under control.

The building was recently sold to new owners who had hired a group of men to clean the premises in preparation for reopening under new management.
One of the men hired to clean the premises, Mr Conway Choto, told Chronicle they realised a fire had broken out on the other side of the premises after noticing a dark cloud of smoke billowing into the air.

“We were clearing debris on the other side of the building when we noticed thick black smoke coming from the back of the building. “The warehouse contained plastic containers with chemicals and some bales of cotton-like material.

“By the time the Fire Brigade arrived, the contents in the warehouse were fully ablaze. They instructed us to move to a safe distance in case something in the warehouse exploded.

“The new owners are coming on the first of October, so they had hired us to clean the premises,” said Mr Choto. When Chronicle arrived at the scene, firefighters were busy extinguishing the raging blaze.

A water bowser from the Fire Brigade had arrived as a backup water reservoir to assist the fire tenders in extinguishing the blaze. While the majority of the team concentrated on the warehouse blaze, a small group of firefighters was extinguishing a veld fire that had broken out on the periphery of the premises to prevent the fire from spreading to nearby buildings.

This incident marks the second time in 13 days that the Bulawayo Fire Brigade has responded to a major fire. On September 16, decommissioned passenger coaches at the National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) Bulawayo mechanical workshop were set ablaze.

Fifty-one decommissioned passenger coaches were reduced to shells in what the Fire Brigade later determined was a fire ignited by discarded lit material, possibly a cigarette stub.