adminPatrick Chitumba Senior Reporter
AN event meant to celebrate a birthday of a girl who turned one year yesterday turned tragic for a Kumalo family in Bulawayo after the family house caught fire which reduced property worth thousands of dollars to ashes.The fire suspected to have been caused by an electric fault completely burnt down the house as well as property in all the rooms.
The owner of the house Solomon Mapako, a retired civil servant, said the fire did not even give them the chance to enjoy the birthday cake.
The Chronicle Newscrew arrived at the house around 5:55PM and found members of the Bulawayo Fire Brigade battling to put out the fire which had brought down the roof of the six-roomed house and burnt all the furniture. The family only managed to salvage a single blanket.
In an interview, a distraught Mapako said he had no clue as to how the fire started.
Dressed in old pair of khaki trousers and a stripped shirt – a barefooted Mapako said: “We were celebrating my granddaughter’s birthday and were seated in the sitting room watching the soccer match between Dynamos and Caps United.”
Around 4:40PM Mapako said one of his children Denver screamed that there was a fire coming from a make-shift bed room.
The Fire Brigade is believed to have arrived almost an hour after the fire broke out.
“The room is infact averandah which we turned into a room and that is where the fire started. But I don’t know how and what caused the fire,” said Mapako.
He said they all ran out of the house but by then the fire had spread to the kitchen, sitting room and moving to his bedroom.
“I then broke one of the burglar bars and entered the bedroom hoping to save some property but the fire had engulfed the whole room. I only came out with a blanket, the only possession we now have,” he said.
Bulawayo Fire Brigade, acting senior divisional officer Jabulani Ndlovu said with the manner the roof collapsed showed that the fire was spreading fast.
“We are yet to ascertain the cause of the fire,” he said.
derick.khumalo