BY NHAU MANGIRAZI
A VELDFIRE broke out yesterday afternoon at Hurungwe Children’s Home in Karoi and destroyed most of the buildings and other infrastructure at the centre.
The home was closed in March this year by the Social Welfare department under controversial circumstances.
This was due to wrangling between Lions Club International chapters, which were fighting to control the home.
When NewsDay visited the home yesterday, some structures were still smouldering, especially grass thatched huts.
A guard at the children’s home told NewsDay that the veldfire was caused by a gardener at the premises.
‘‘I was making regular observation rounds on the premises around 12.10pm when I noticed that there was a fire which had started at a nearby garden. They failed to put it out,” narrated the guard who refused to be named, and asked that the gardener must not be named.
The Karoi Town Council fire tender team was alerted a few minutes later, but could not put out the inferno.
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“When the fire people arrived, the damage had already been done and they did not have enough water to put out the fire,” the guard said.
About 70 children who used to reside at the home were relocated to other homes in Mhangura, Chinhoyi and Kadoma.
Efforts to get a comment from social welfare officials yesterday were fruitless.
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