BULAWAYO – The City of Bulawayo Fire Department has condemned a city building which caught fire last Friday.
No-one was hurt when fire broke out on the 13th floor of the African Life Building which houses the Bulawayo West Police Headquarters and residential flats for police offices.
In its report on the fire incident, the fire department said the building at the corner of Joshua Mqabuko Street and 9th Avenue lacked basic infrastructure to deal with a fire emergency.
“Firefighters couldn’t find hose reel and hand extinguishers in the building and to worsen the matter the dry riser was not working as it was vandalised. The firefighter team had to run hoses from the ground along the staircase up to the 13th floor to put out the fire,” Bulawayo’s acting chief fire officer Linos Phiri said.
A dry riser system is an empty pipe running up the inside of a building which can be connected to by firefighters and used as a pressurised water system. There will be inlet connections on the outside of the building – or in fire escape areas – for the fire services to access, allowing the water to be pumped up to valves on upper floors on the inside.
The fire department said the cause of the blaze, which was restricted to Flat Number 1302 on the top floor, had been determined to be an electrical fault.
“The team observed burnt tangling electrical wires feeding various electrical gadgets in the make shift lounge. Hazel Maronga residing at number 1302 stated that she was in the lounge and heard a sparking sound from the other side of the makeshift lounge. On investigating, she observed smoke and went down the stairs to report,” Phiri said.
The building was quickly evacuated as hundreds of people gathered below.
