News / Local
Firebrigade blames car owner for failing to report fire in time
16 Nov 2015 at 09:01hrs | Views
Bulawayo Fire Brigade has blamed the owner of a VW Golf car which was burnt down close to Hyper Supermarket in Bulawayo on Thursday last week saying could he had reported in time the vehicle could have been saved.
Bulawayo chief fire officer, Richard Peterson said the claims that fire brigade failed to extinguish the fire on a VW Gold owned by Saimon Mambazo Phiri were false.
The fire brigade had been accused of failing to extinguish the fire leading to the total destruction of the car.
Peterson said the claims were false and the fire was caused by an electric fault in the vehicle.
"The fire brigade was called when the car was already sitting on reams. We had to prevent the fuel tank from exploding which would have caused more damage to other properties around. The fire fighters managed to prevent the tank from exploding."
Peterson said the owner failed to call the fire brigade but a passerby Moyo is the one who instead called the Famona station instead of city station.
He denied the claims that fire fighters took water from a nearby toilet saying they went to the vehicle with enough extinguishing material.
He said that there were on lookers who watched and did not help the car owner put off the fire even those with vehicles parked around did not bother using their fire extinguishers to put off the fire.
He said there were about 300 people watching and doing nothing.
"Blaming the fire brigade is unfair and demoralising the firefighters," he said.
"It took them 86 seconds to put off the fire, those guys are our heroes they must be praised for them to be encouraged in doing their job."
He said had the owner called the fire brigade in time, the vehicle could have been saved.
On Facebook Phiri said the "Fire just started (sic) when we were driving with Javas Sibanda ; I stopped & We tried everything; removed battery etc.. and got up to 10 fire extinguishers; Fire brigade though 30 minutes or so later tried but could not save car."
Bulawayo chief fire officer, Richard Peterson said the claims that fire brigade failed to extinguish the fire on a VW Gold owned by Saimon Mambazo Phiri were false.
The fire brigade had been accused of failing to extinguish the fire leading to the total destruction of the car.
Peterson said the claims were false and the fire was caused by an electric fault in the vehicle.
"The fire brigade was called when the car was already sitting on reams. We had to prevent the fuel tank from exploding which would have caused more damage to other properties around. The fire fighters managed to prevent the tank from exploding."
Peterson said the owner failed to call the fire brigade but a passerby Moyo is the one who instead called the Famona station instead of city station.
He denied the claims that fire fighters took water from a nearby toilet saying they went to the vehicle with enough extinguishing material.
He said that there were on lookers who watched and did not help the car owner put off the fire even those with vehicles parked around did not bother using their fire extinguishers to put off the fire.
He said there were about 300 people watching and doing nothing.
"Blaming the fire brigade is unfair and demoralising the firefighters," he said.
"It took them 86 seconds to put off the fire, those guys are our heroes they must be praised for them to be encouraged in doing their job."
He said had the owner called the fire brigade in time, the vehicle could have been saved.
On Facebook Phiri said the "Fire just started (sic) when we were driving with Javas Sibanda ; I stopped & We tried everything; removed battery etc.. and got up to 10 fire extinguishers; Fire brigade though 30 minutes or so later tried but could not save car."
Source - Byo24News
