X-mas nightmare as fire guts pensioner’s home
WHAT was promising to be a beautiful Christmas Day morning turned out to be a nightmare for a retired couple in Bulawayo after their home was consumed by fire after the local fire fighters turned up with dry tanks.
Mrs Rosah (75) and Mr Gabriel Gezi (84) of Queens Park East suburb and their family were woken up to screams from people in the house when the fire started. Mrs Lucy Mutangabende, a daughter to the couple narrated how the fire broke out.
“People were asleep and at about 3am on Christmas Day, my sister noticed there was fire from one of the bedrooms and people started screaming.
“We called the Fire Brigade and we had no joy and we decided to go to the North End Fire Station to get them but when we got there we found the gates closed.
“We tried knocking on the gate but there was no response and someone had to jump over the gate and go and knock in their offices so that they come out,” she said
However, even after getting the officials to wake up, their nightmare was far from over.
“When they were woken up, they came to the house and arrived with almost empty water trucks and it was sad that they watched as the house burnt down. If they had come with water they could have saved some of the property in the house. Again they began searching for a hydrant in the area and could not locate one,” she lamented.
M r s Mutangabende said the family lost all its belongings including clothes, educational certificates, identity documents, food and furniture, among other things. The Gezi family has been forced to stay with various relatives who can accommodate them while they map the way forward. One of the affected grandchildren, Natasha Mutangabende, a student at a local college was at pains to narrate what happened on the fateful day.
“When the fire broke out we heard sounds and assumed there were fire crackers being blasted outside as it was the festive season. My sister woke up, checked and realised there was smoke in the house and started waking up everyone, the fire then started from the roof of that bedroom,” she said.
She said a second fire truck came later and it was too late as the fire had spread to other rooms of the house. Bulawayo City Council Fire Department chief fire officer, Mr Richard Peterson, who was away when the incident happened said they attend scenes well equipped.
“When we attend to fires we go well equipped with water in our fire tenders, when we run out we look for hydrants that will be nearest to that place and we complement what we will have,” he said.
Earlier in the year a United Kingdombased charity, Operation Florian donated fire and ambulance equipment to the council’s fire and rescue services department, as part of its mandate to improve fire and rescue services in the city and surrounding
areas.