News / Local
Emganwini house burns down due to electrical surge
20 Jun 2012 at 23:50hrs | Views
A family in Emganwini suburb lost property worth over $2 000 when their house burnt down due to an electrical surge on Friday (last week) afternoon.
The incident occurred around 2pm when electricity was reconnected after a nine-hour load-shedding period in the area.
It is reported that when electricity was restored the residents heard a loud explosion, which resulted in the house catching fire and burning property.
A tenant at the house, Miss Siphumuzile Moyo, said she was at a neighbour's house when she heard a loud noise coming from her house.
"I was just next door with a neighbour when I heard a loud noise coming from my house just after electricity came back. I ran to see what was going on and saw smoke coming from the house.
"The fire started from my bedroom spreading towards the kitchen, burning most of the property in the house," she said.
Some residents who tried to assist her ran for dear life after the asbestos roofing exploded resulting in the roof collapsing.
"Some residents who were helping me to put out the fire ran away after the roof blew up and collapsed resulting in a delay to put out the fire.
"When the fire brigade team arrived, we had already put out the fire and they only assisted in removing the rest of the property from inside the house," said Miss Moyo.
Mr Professor Kandemiiri, a neighbour, said when they heard the noise, they ran to see what was happening.
"When we heard the noise, we ran to see what was happening and we saw the house on fire. I switched off electricity from the mains and we started putting out the fire using a horse pipe and buckets."
Some residents in the area accused Zesa of having caused the house to burn down as this was caused by an electrical surge.
The residents said if it was not for the load-shedding the house would not have burnt down as Zesa does not follow the schedule.
The incident occurred around 2pm when electricity was reconnected after a nine-hour load-shedding period in the area.
It is reported that when electricity was restored the residents heard a loud explosion, which resulted in the house catching fire and burning property.
A tenant at the house, Miss Siphumuzile Moyo, said she was at a neighbour's house when she heard a loud noise coming from her house.
"I was just next door with a neighbour when I heard a loud noise coming from my house just after electricity came back. I ran to see what was going on and saw smoke coming from the house.
"The fire started from my bedroom spreading towards the kitchen, burning most of the property in the house," she said.
"Some residents who were helping me to put out the fire ran away after the roof blew up and collapsed resulting in a delay to put out the fire.
"When the fire brigade team arrived, we had already put out the fire and they only assisted in removing the rest of the property from inside the house," said Miss Moyo.
Mr Professor Kandemiiri, a neighbour, said when they heard the noise, they ran to see what was happening.
"When we heard the noise, we ran to see what was happening and we saw the house on fire. I switched off electricity from the mains and we started putting out the fire using a horse pipe and buckets."
Some residents in the area accused Zesa of having caused the house to burn down as this was caused by an electrical surge.
The residents said if it was not for the load-shedding the house would not have burnt down as Zesa does not follow the schedule.
Source - TC
