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Laurel Murangaridzirayi, [email protected]

SIX houses in two neighbouring Bulawayo suburbs — Bellevue and Newton West —were razed down by fire within six months due to electrical faults, which have been attributed to an outdated wiring system in the areas.

The latest incident occurred last Thursday when a house in Bellevue was burnt to ashes and property worth thousands of dollars was destroyed in the inferno.

The property owner, Mrs Margret Mpofu said the fire was caused by an electrical fault.

“The fire started in my bedroom and the cause is suspected to be an electrical fault because of the old and unchanged wiring system of the house,” she said.

Mrs Mpofu said when the fire broke out, her three-year-old child was playing computer games.

“My child heard some strange sounds emanating from the bedrooms then she went outside to call other people who were around. When they rushed back to the house, there was the fire and it was uncontrollable,” she said.

Mrs Mpofu said she was away when the incident occurred. Upon her return, the house had already been burnt down.

“There are no electrical appliances in my room, and which automatically disqualifies electrical appliances to be the root cause of the fire, but the old wires in the electrical system of this house could be the main cause,” she said.

“Everything was completely burnt including my children’s uniforms and books. We are appealing to members of the public to help if possible.”
Another resident, Mr Elvis Ndlovu said most of the houses in the two suburbs are now old with the decaying wiring systems.

“The wiring of these houses is out dated and needs a complete overhaul. If this problem is not addressed we will continue to have more houses catching fire and lives are also likely to be lost as a result,” he said.

Mr Witness Mpofu, a resident, said the problem is further worsened by copper cables theft.

“When thieves steal copper cables, the suburb plunges into darkness for days if not weeks, forcing us to resort to gas tanks which is also another cause of fires. It is known fact that in most of the houses in Bellevue the tubing is outdated and risky,” he said.

Bulawayo City Council (BCC) acting chief fire officer, Linos Phiri said the cause of fires in the two suburbs is linked to the faulty electrical wiring system.

“Since we are in winter, most people switch on electrical appliances such as heaters to keep themselves warm, but sadly some of these gadgets are plugged into sockets that are faulty. When people forget to disconnect these devices, we end up having these fires,” he said.

“It is important for residents to constantly check the wiring systems since these houses were built several years ago and they are now very old. We usually conduct periodic campaigns warning against such hazards.”

Mr Phiri said in the last six months they attended to six fire incidents in Bellevue and Newton West suburbs.

Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC) acting general manager for the Western Region, Engineer Lloyd Jaji said consumers should upgrade their electrical wiring systems to avoid the recurrence of fire incidents.

“We urge residents to have their installations upgraded directly from electrical connections to avoid these instances, which result in property being destroyed by fires,” he said.

He urged residents to desist from vandalising property, saying it contributed to fires.

In March, Newton West suburb was plunged into darkness after thieves stole 1 500 metres of copper cables. Bulawayo has of late been hit by a series of power outages mostly due to copper cable theft, with eastern suburbs being the worst affected. ZETDC is now replacing copper cables with aluminium ones.

The power utility is seeking a review of the sentence for individuals convicted of stealing power cables and transformers from 10 years to 30 years.

Government has since moved in to clamp down on vandalism and theft of copper cables by strengthening legislation on copper control and suspending the issuance of licences for dealing in scrap copper pending the amendment of the Copper Act.

The Copper Amendment Bill provides a mandatory sentence for failure to produce a certificate of origin being set a minimum of 10 years without the option of a fine.

Power cable thefts and transformer vandalism is prejudicing Zesa Holdings of more than US$2 million annually.

ZETDC requires more than US$14 million to procure intruder detection gadgets to fight the scourge that continues to bleed the power utility.