Veld fire guts city house

News
PROPERTY worth thousands of dollars was destroyed when a thatched double storey house was gutted by a veld fire along Red Stock Road in Riverside, Bulawayo, yesterday.

PROPERTY worth thousands of dollars was destroyed when a thatched double storey house was gutted by a veld fire along Red Stock Road in Riverside, Bulawayo, yesterday.

BENSON DUBE OWN CORRESPONDENT

The cause of the fire remains a mystery although one resident said it was first spotted on a hill in Lochview and fire fighters from Famona Fire Station were called.

The firemen fought the fire, but it continued to spread due to the windy conditions and long dry grass.

However, the fire brigade managed to prevent the flames from gutting two nearby houses and the fact that they maintained short grass and had fire guards helped the situation.

The damaged house’s yard had long dry grass and trees and the fire spread quickly.

The owner of the house, Bester Ncube, was said to be in Botswana and his cottage tenant Mtatshwelwa Donga said the fire came from the Lochview direction eating up the dry grass towards their property.

“The fire was coming towards our neighbour and l told them to inform me if they could not cope with it since it seemed small,” he said.

“When I returned to check, I saw fire in the yard. We managed to stop the fire and one fire man returned to Lochview and then we saw fire from another direction. As we were putting it out, l heard a neighbour shouting that our roof had caught fire.”

A neighbour, Grace Ncube, said the problem with the damaged house was that the yard had long dry grass and trees.

“We took some buckets to try and put the fire out, but it was too much for us and the fire tender had to come to our yard to try and contain the fire,” she said.

Another neighbour, Michele Austen, said the fire started from a hill and she phoned the fire brigade whose reaction was swift. Bulawayo chief fire officer Richard Peterson said: “We got there on time, but we had to fight the fire from the neighbour’s side as we did not have direct access to the affected house because the main gate was closed.”

Meanwhile, a kombi was reduced to a shell yesterday evening at the entrance of the City Hall car park.

According to eyewitnesses, the driver was refuelling using a container while the engine was running, resulting in the fire.

The kombi driver, Ishmael Moyo, said after refuelling the vehicle, he poured a little bit of fuel into the carburettor for the engine to kick and that sparked the fire.

“I had just finished refuelling and left a bit of fuel to pour into the carburettor so that the engine could start. As soon as I poured, I saw a spark and the whole engine was on fire,” said Moyo.

The kombi that plied the National University of Science and Technology and United Bulawayo Hospitals route had four passengers at the time it caught fire, but they all escaped unhurt.

People pushed the kombi away from other cars into the empty centre parking of Leopold Takawira Avenue to prevent the fire from spreading to other parked vehicles.

Another fire destroyed property and two rooms of a Nkulumane house close to Munyoro shopping centre yesterday. The cause of that fire is not known.