Two minors killed in house inferno

Thupeyo Muleya

Two minors aged three (3) and four (4) years were burnt to death when a house, in Zimbabwe’s border town of Beitbridge, caught fire on Saturday midnight.

Municipality of Beitbridge Fire Fighters said yesterday that they suspected the fire started from a candle light.

“We are yet to ascertain the exact cause of the fire, from our initial observations indicate that the fire could have started from a candle light.

“Indications are that the now deceased were sleeping in the room where a candle was left unattended. It then fell and the cause caught fire which also spread into two other rooms.

“The two minors where trapped in the inferno and were burnt beyond recognition,” said Mr George Maseko the head of Municipality Emergency Services.

He said fire fighters were called in to put out the fire, but unfortunately they found the minors already engulfed by the inferno.

Mr Maseko said the bodies were yet to be retrieved under the debris as they await forensic investigators to make on the scene observations.

The police officer commanding Beitbridge District Chief Superintendent Tichaona Nyongo said he was yet to get more details from those on the ground.

“We are still compiling details on the ground,” he said.

Beitbridge councillor for the area Dulivhadzimu Ward 5, Mr Granger ‘Hungwe’ Nyoni, described the incident as devastating.

“This is a sad loss to both the family and community of Beitbridge. We await the outcome of investigations into this incident,” he said.

The latest incident brings to eight the total number of severe fires that have occurred in the border town since the beginning of the year.

In January property worth RTGS$190 000 was destroyed when a customs warehouse caught fire on the export section within Beitbridge Border Post.

Six other houses in the town were destroyed by electrical faults and gas related infernos.