Chronicle Editor
Lumbidzani Dima, Chronicle Reporter
SIX vendors who sell fruits and vegetables outside the City Hall car park along Robert Mugabe Way lost stock worth over US$1 800 after a fire razed their stalls on Monday night. A guard is said to have not seen the fire until he was informed by witnesses.
The Bulawayo Fire Brigade suspects that the fire, which occurred at around 10PM, was caused by a mosquito coil which could have been left lit by one of the vendors.
The vending area has 48 vendors.
The fire destroyed fruits and vegetables from six vending stalls made of zinc sheets and metal poles.
The City Hall vendors vice-secretary Ms Sibonisiwe Ncube said:
“I got the call at around 11PM from my son who is based in Gweru informing that he had been called by someone informing him that there was a fire at our fruit and vegetable stands. When the fire broke out, a hired guard who watches our stock was present but said he did not see it and was only phoned by someone notifying him about what was going on around him,” said Ms Ncube.
She said she arrived at the scene at around 11.30PM from Emganwini suburb and failed to get satisfactory answers.
Ms Ncube said the fire brigade was called by a passerby. She disputed that the fire was caused by a mosquito coil saying someone could have sabotaged them by pouring petrol and setting fire on their stalls. “We don’t have an idea of who could have done this, but most probably the person who did it poured paraffin or fuel on the stock then started the fire. The residue of the fire looks more serious than just mosquito coil as even buckets with water were also burnt,” said Ms Ncube.
She said each of the six affected vendors lost stock valued at around US$300 adding that it is going to be a problem to restock.
Another female vendor who only wanted to be identified as T Nkomo said the incident occurred at a time when they were trying to recover from Covid-19-induced lockdown losses.
Bulawayo acting chief fire officer Mr Linos Phiri said the fire is suspected to have been caused by a carelessly discarded mosquito coil.
“The brigade observed that fire started from one stall and spread to the other five. Fire was being accelerated by polythene sheets used to cover vendors wares. There was also a lot of other food stuffs stored at the vending stalls which included cooking oil, rice, macaroni, drinks and other food items. Fire brigade also noted the presence of matches in the vending stalls, quite a number of boxes. There were also sanitisers which acted as accelerants as well in propelling the fire. The rate of spread indicated that the distress call delayed reaching the fire service,” said Mr Phiri.
“These days there are a lot of mosquitoes and some people have tendencies of using coils which are lit to emit smoke to repel them. Coils must never be left unattended as they sometimes drop on combustibles igniting them in the process,” he said.
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