Bulawayo last week witnessed two separate fires that destroyed property worth thousands of dollars and gave the city’s firefighters one of the biggest tests in disaster management.
The first disaster was on Tuesday afternoon when fire damaged a house and two trucks in Emgwanwini high-density suburb.
Property worth thousands of dollars — including two trucks that were parked near the house, 41 drums of fuel and property in two rooms — was destroyed by the fire.
It is suspected that the owner of the house kept highly inflammable substances on the property such as paraffin and petrol in large quantities, which is a recipe for disaster.
Two days later, on Independence Day, another fire razed the Redan Service Station in the city centre. Two fuel tankers were destroyed and another vehicle parked at the filling station was also partially burnt.
There was chaos when traders at the neighbouring Unity Village flea market started moving their wares to safety oblivious to the dangers of the fire. It took the firefighters almost two hours to contain the ravaging fire and more time to cool the tankers.
Investigations by the Bulawayo City Council’s fire services department blamed the fire on “gross negligence”.
It is believed that the fire started when petrol vapour from the leaking fuel got into contact with sparks caused by the welding activites which were taking place at the service station.
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The owners of the filling station were accused by the chief fire officer Richard Peterson of failing to adhere to fire safety regulations as they allowed welding to take place while fuel was being handled.
It goes without saying that both fires could have been avoided if the property owners had respected fire safety regulations and it is a miracle that no lives were lost.
However, it must be mentioned that if it was not for the swift reaction of the city’s fire services department, the damage would have been more severe.
In both incidents the firefighters arrived on time to stop the fire from spreading and destroying more property.
The filling station fire would have been the more devastating because it could have easily spread to adjacent buildings as it is located in a busy part of the city.
In a country where anything hardly works, especially public services, the Bulawayo City Council must be commended on running such an efficient service.
Chief fire officer Peterson was seen at the petrol station supervising his firefighters. This was a rare demonstration of dedication to duty by a public official worth emulating.
It is this level of professionalism by the firefighters that gives us hope that Zimbabwe still has the capacity to rise from the ashes once we get our politics right.
