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Umwinsidale yesterday morning.
Other buildings that include offices were not damaged.
The fire was again a test of the Harare Fire Brigade’s preparedness to deal with house fires as the brigade arrived with inadequate water and poor equipment that included leaking hosepipes.
When the firemen arrived the cottage was still intact but because they did not have enough water the cottage collapsed under the inferno as had did the main house a few minutes before the arrival of the fire team.
Nothing was recovered from the main house, which was under grass thatch.
Only a handful of items were retrieved from the cottage adjoining the main property, which was also heavily damaged in the inferno.
Mr Hingeston said barking dogs woke him up only to discover that his house was on fire.
“I managed to pull out my two children and my girlfriend from the house,” he said.
By the time The Herald arrived at the property, the girlfriend and children had been taken to Mr Hingeston’s mother’s house.
His neighbours immediately alerted the Harare Fire Brigade but the fire crew arrived when the main house was already down.
Mr Hingeston said had the firemen brought in sound equipment the cottage would have been saved.
“Their equipment was not good enough.
“They came an hour after the fire. They might have saved the outside building but their equipment was not good enough,” he said.
He said together with his workers they broke windows of vehicles parked close to the house and pushed them away to safety.
He suspected the fire could have been caused by an electrical fault.
His neighbour Mr John Mapondera said the fire brigade came with inadequate equipment.
Head of security at the homestead, Mr Morgan Sanguwa, said the firemen failed to extinguish the fire on the cottage because they did not have enough water.
Fire brigade employees complained that their work was inhibited by lack of equipment adding the image of the fire brigade was under fire.
A senior fire brigade officer, Mr Joseph Mavhunga, said the city fire hydrants in the suburb had no water forcing the fire team to drive up to 8 km to Chisipite Shopping Centre to fetch more water.
“We had problems with water.
“We had to send our truck to Chisipite,” he said.
Online Reporter