PROPERTY worth thousands of dollars was destroyed when a Bulawayo-bound Zebulon bus caught fire between the 20km and 30km peg along the Beitbridge-Bulawayo Road on Christmas Eve. SILAS NKALA/LINDA CHINOBVA
Matabeleland South provincial police spokesperson Inspector Philisani Ndebele confirmed that the bus, which was coming from South Africa, caught fire, but no passenger was injured in the inferno.
“Yes, according to the officer-in-charge here, the case was reported to us as an incident as no person died in the fire,” he said.
“The case was reported by the Fire Brigade as just a fire incident and it is alleged that the fire broke out due to binding of the bus wheels.”
Ndebele said since the incident was not fatal, he had no details of the cost of destruction caused by the fire.
Some witnesses said when the fire broke out, all passengers disembarked from the bus and watched while most of their property was reduced to ashes. Efforts to get a comment from the bus company yesterday were unsuccessful as its phone numbers were not going through.
Meanwhile, a Bulawayo man escaped death by a whisker when his car burst into flames caused by a suspected electrical fault on Christmas Day in Lobengula West.
Bulawayo Fire Brigade senior divisional officer Linos Phiri said the man escaped the inferno without any injuries. According to Phiri, the man was driving a BMW at an average speed when it suddenly burst into flames. The man jumped out of the vehicle to safety.
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“I can confirm that there was a car that was burnt to ashes on Wednesday due to an electrical fault and the owner of the car jumped out of the car before the fire intensified,” said Phiri.
The car was burnt to ashes.
However, Phiri said there had been a reduction of fire accidents around the city during the festive season mainly as a result of the temporary halt to load-shedding.
“It can be noted that during the festive season there has been a decrease in the number of fire accidents we have had to attend to,” he said.
