Pumula house gutted by fire - residents blame Zesa

Residents in Pumula North, Bulawayo have blamed Zesa for the fire which destroyed one of the residents Mrs Eveline Ncube-Dube (68)'s property on Monday night.

The house was gutted by fire which reportedly broke out just after 7pm and consumed one of the bedrooms while the family had gone for an evening church service.

There was a power outage earlier that evening and Mrs Ncube-Dube's grandchildren used candles  to look for clothes before leaving for church.

Unknowingly to them, something had caught fire in the room and the house was on fire after 8pm when they returned from church and neighbours were already busy putting it out.

Yesterday morning, a handful of seemingly angry residents who included fellow church members were gathered helping the family clean the rubble and walls.

Although Mrs Ncube-Dube said she suspected the fire was started by a candle, the angry residents said they were losing property because of Zesa's load-shedding programme.

They appealed to the power utility to have a timetable of load-shedding, saying what was happening was even putting their lives at risk of being electrocuted.

"This is painful because if we had electricity, we could not be having all this. In fact, we would not be using dangerous sources of light like candles. We have heard in some instances people being burnt to death because of power surges and fire caused by candles all because of Zesa," said Mrs Isabel Thendele.

Another resident, Mrs Esilina Gumbo, who spoke on behalf of members of the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Pumula North who were cleaning the house, said Zesa should respect the people.

"If Zesa could listen and respect people's lives, we could not be having this. There is no timetable of load-shedding, which leaves us confused and as a result we always use candles, which are dangerous and cause loss of property and life," said Mrs Gumbo.

"We have lost property especially electrical gadgets because of power surges while some have lost their lives and as you can see here, this family has lost its property. Our question is, what is Zesa doing about this?"

Mrs Gumbo said her church would assist, but challenged the power utility to consider the plight of residents, as it was the one causing destruction of their property as a result of power outages.

A distraught Mrs Ncube-Dube said she does not know how she would repair the house or replace the lost property.

She said she lives alone at her house and the grandchildren had visited from Nkulumane where they live with relatives.

"I do not even know how it started but suspect that something might have caught fire when my grandchildren entered the room with a candle when we were preparing to go to a church service at Malindela in the evening," said Mrs Ncube-Dube.

"We finished around 8pm and as we were coming back with other church members, we saw smoke and I thought people were burning rubbish. It was only when we arrived here that I was told my house was on fire."

She said the fire destroyed everything in the spare bedroom.

"We could not save anything from the spare bedroom, which had a bed, a fitted wardrobe, clothes, a television set, blankets and other items. All the blankets were destroyed because my grandchildren were visiting, we had taken others from other bedrooms and they were using them," Mrs Ncube-Dube.

"I am grateful to neighbours and church members because for what they did because they put it out when it was about to start in the main bedroom. One of the neighbours, an old woman even forgot that we had water here and she had to run several times with a bucket to fetch water from her house to put out the fire."

She appealed for assistance to buy blankets and repair the house.

Residents reportedly used water to put out the fire and had to break the front door to gain entry as the house was locked while the Fire Brigade reportedly arrived at about 9pm when the fire had been put out.

Mrs Ncube-Dube's daughter-in-law, Mrs Siphosenkosi Dube who had visited said she was shocked and it would be difficult for them to repair the house.

"We do not know what to do now. We just have to accept it happened but we do not know when and how we are going to meet the expenses. We thank God that no one was burnt," she said.