Dozens killed in fire incidents

Herald Reporter

DOZENS of people and domestic animals have been killed by fire, while property worth thousands of dollars has been destroyed as authorities struggle to contain fire outbreaks in the absence of modern fire trucks.

Zimbabwe has fire tenders, but the numbers need to be beefed up.

It procured fire trucks from Belarus some time last year, but as they were being shipped to Harare, 17 of them were seized by Lithuania, which is a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO).

NATO member countries and some European countries imposed illegal sanctions on Russia following its special military operation which is ongoing in Ukraine and with Belarus being a close ally of Moscow.

In the absence of those fire trucks, Zimbabwe has been reduced to putting out fire through rudimentary methods.

A number of provinces such as Mashonaland West, Mashonaland East, Mashonaland Central and Matabeleland South are prone to fire outbreaks and in most cases they have killed people and livestock and destroyed houses, leaving people without clothes and shelter.

The Department of Civil Protection (DCP) has since confirmed a huge increase in fire-related incidences from the start of the year to date.  DCP executive director, Mr Nathan Nkomo last night confirmed the rise in fire incidences and called on the international community not to politicise issues where people’ lives were at stake.

“The world should learn to separate issues; where there is need for humanitarian support, the issues of sanctions must fall by the wayside and let people be saved from issues that threaten their well-being,” said Mr Nkomo.

“At the moment we have a situation where the country is struggling to control fire outbreaks because it does not have adequate fire trucks because some are held in Lithuania.”

Sometime in February this year, Attorney-General Mrs Virginia Mabiza led a delegation to Lithuania to engage her counterpart, over 17 fire tenders belonging to Zimbabwe that were impounded there enroute to Harare following a misunderstanding over their origins.