Redan fire caused by negligence: Bulawayo Fire Brigade

THE Bulawayo Fire Brigade has concluded that the fire that gutted a Redan Petroleum filling station on Thursday was caused by negligence on the part of the station's personnel and fuel tanker drivers.

In an interview yesterday, Bulawayo City Council chief fire officer, Mr Richard Peterson, said the fire could have been avoided if the workers and the tanker drivers had exercised due care.

"Our investigations show that there was gross negligence in terms of the fire safety management regulations.

"The personnel that were transferring fuel to the underground tanks did not adhere to fire safety regulations as they allowed welding activities to take place while fuel was being transferred to the underground tanks," said Mr Peterson.

Fire Prevention of Zimbabwe (FPZ) Director of Inspectorates and training unit, Mr Witness Ncube, concurred with the Fire Brigade boss.

"Investigations have revealed that there were welding activities happening simultaneously with the transferring of fuel to underground tanks. The fuel was flowing from the tanker to the mobile pump when the hose disconnected from the pump. This resulted in the leakage of fuel that was ignited by the welding sparks, which in turn ignited the tanker spreading to the whole premises.

"If the workers had been supervising the decanting process they would have been able to stop the leakage and the fire would have been avoided," said Mr Ncube.

Meanwhile, police who are yet to conclude their investigations into the cause of the fire, have cordoned off the area around the filling station.

In an interview yesterday, Bulawayo police spokesperson Inspector Mandlenkosi Moyo said police were protecting the scene until investigations have been completed.

"We are protecting the scene to ensure that evidence is not tampered with and that various departments including the fire brigade can conduct their investigations without disturbances. It is a safety and scene protection procedure that the police take until investigations are exhausted," said Insp Moyo.

When a Chronicle news crew visited the scene yesterday people were still flocking to catch a glimpse of the burnt building.

Redan transporters' representatives who spoke on condition of anonymity said the two fuel tankers hose  were worth $80 000.

"One fuel tanker's hose is worth $40 000 excluding the trailers. We are not sure how many litres of fuel were in the tankers but it was contaminated and will need to be reprocessed for it to be usable," he said.

"It is early for us to tell if the two fuel tankers were insured. We are still carrying out investigations to also ascertain the value of the property that was destroyed. However, it is a relief to us that no one was hurt in the explosion."

The filling station owner, Mr Ernest Marima, said investigations were still under way to establish the value of property that was destroyed by the fire.

"At the moment we are still carrying out investigations to determine the value of property that was destroyed. Nothing indicates that the underground tanks were affected but we will have to confirm that. However, the filling station was insured and those with fuel coupons can always fill at any Redan filling stations," said Mr Marima.

This was the second major fire caused by fuel in Bulawayo this week.

On Tuesday, a house in Emganwini suburb where 41 drums of fuel were being kept, was gutted by fire resulting in the destruction of property worth thousands of dollars including two trucks.