Fire burns down home industries

A fire whose cause is yet to be established has burnt down the Glenview 8 home industries in Harare this morning.

The fire which is said to have have started at about 2 am was spotted by a security guard only after it had already scaled to the roof of the furniture manufacturing stalls. According to eyewitnesses on site, the fire brigade arrived on site within minutes of being called but the fire was already out of hand.

On arrival the fire brigade is reported to have jumped into containing the fire to remain within the precinct of the home industries and not spread to nearby residential houses and a fuel filling station opposite the industries.

The disaster nearly got worse when the fire tenders ran out of water and the fire hydrants did not have water as there was no water in the Glenview area over night. The fire team had to resort to pumping water from a stream about five hundred metres away to finally put the flame under control.

Eye witnesses on the scene commended the City of Harare fire team for managing to handle the fire under the extremely difficult conditions.

"The fire team did a splendid job putting the fire under control. Things could really have gone bad had they not been efficient," said Tichaona Mpofu a resident who witnessed the incident.

"My worry is how the security people around the area delayed reporting the fire to the fire brigade until it was a huge fire, I have every reason to suspect foul play from some people in the industries," said one Anna Chinyanganya.

The Glenview Industries area is home to several furniture manufacturers and the wood and planks in the area may have been the reason why the fire spread too quickly though the cause of the fire is year to be known. Workers on site however claim that the home industries have a lot of illegal electricity connections which could have been the cause of the fire. Another claimed that someone might have forgot to put out a home made furnace which they use to heat iron during the day and the furnace might have spread the fire.

Comment is not yet available from the City of Harare fire department but thousands of US dollars worth of property is estimated to have been destroyed in the fire.