Friday, March 29, 2024

Firefighters battle fire at Kamwala market

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MORE than 50 stalls at the Old Luburma market in Kamwala second-class trading area in Lusaka were reduced to ashes after part of the market caught fire.

The fire, which was suspected to have been caused by an electrical fault in the early hours of yesterday, destroyed goods worth millions of Kwacha.

A police officer at Kamwala police post, Nelson Shayenge, who was found at the scene, said he received a telephone call around 05:00 hours that the market had caught fire.

He said an electrical fault or a charcoal brazier could have caused the fire in one of the restaurants at the market.

“The problem with this market is that there are too many tiny shops and restaurants which are all squeezed in one place.

“You could have a fire like this simply because someone left a brazier burning,” he said.

A trader, Joseph Zulu, whose shop was not affected, said he arrived at the market at 07:00 hours after a friend called him.

Other shop owners who rushed to the scene were found trying to retrieve some items from their debris-turned stalls while firefighters from the Lusaka City Council were battling to quench the fire.

Two fire engines from the Central Fire station were found at the scene as firefighters battled to quench the inferno.

Some women who had lost their merchandise fainted while others openly wept upon discovering that all their investment had been reduced to rubble.

Some of the traders complained that they had lost goods that they got on credit, hoping to pay back after making sufficient sales.

The fire was only put off around 09:00 hours.

15 COMMENTS

  1. Good,Bravo lord of fire.But how much was bunt.At last gonga-fake- ya pya.
    Maybe we can have genuine goods now.
    Mukamwilwa is not incompetent,he is competent in control of fake goods.He should be honoured by Zambia beural of standards.

  2. Fire the guy who wrote the headline! Im yet to encounter a firefighter battling impotence. Well, not on the job.

  3. our fire service needs emmergency itself,firstly it is run by incompetente people.honestly how can you employ a fire man who cant even swim.i know of a person who cant swim but is employed to save peoples lives.how will he retrieve me if am drowing;secondly most of them luck trainng and their equipment is out of date;let the commando unit of ndola take over cos they are more capable

  4. Can’t quite figure it out: but it’s like all these electrical faults in these fires in Zambia only happen at night! Are rats and ghosts in overdrive then because energy use should be minimal at those times.

  5. The thing is some of these chaps are being kicked out of that place coz they refuse if all is well…Govt is clever with the shushus!!watch them nicely.

  6. fire safety design in most of the construction in zambia is always lacking.pipo alwaz take it as an extra construction cost and wait until they have monetary losses or casualties,its very sad.What we need is a construction law that should see to it that,in every public construction we need active fire safety measures and some detection systems like smoke detectors ,flame detectors and an ctive fire fighting department otherwise we are doomed,we have for a well over looked the devastitating effects of a fire.Moreover the buildings should be compartmentalised to avoid fire spread,please do we have structural engineers in zambia?

  7. Whose fault is it that the country has poor quality people at all technical levels of development other than Levy and his crooks?

  8. Under which budgetory allocation does the Fire Department fall? It truly needs a total overhaul and outfitting. To fail to put out a fire at a small market in less than 2 hrs is an embarrasment

  9. Work up from the commando unit dream my freind,Equipment,training & MOTIVATION for the firefighters is needed. How many Commando units are you planning to give birth to.We just dont have contigency plans for emergencies in our land.

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