Fire has swept through Melissa Shopping Centre in the Kabulonga suburb in Lusaka.
Eyewitnesses said the fire started around 05:30 Hours this morning but the source of the fire is yet to be established.By press time, the fire fighters were still on the scene battling the inferno.
Most urban centres in Zambia have seen outbreaks of fire after the disputed August elections with the Zambia Police suspecting that it could be acts of economic sabotage.
How sad.
very heart breaking
Insurance companies & owners of these premises (where they are innocent) should consider hiring proper fire investigators. Our political police has no capacity to do these forensic investigations hence fuelling the political myth. Pea brains like Kennedy Kamba & Frank Bwalya will forment hate in the country using these claims.
This is too similar to the zero option & black mamba sagas of Fred Chiluba,
Africa is a Forrest overall, is and will always be.
Fire is a natural part of a forest’s life cycle – so good to see ecology being rinsed.
Thanks
BB2014
What a shambolic report. Let experts invesigate the cause of that fire instead of alarming the nation with your political reporting.
Lets investigate if its an innocent fire – some of these could be ENGINEERED insurance claims; but really sad if its a true accident.
That is all the load shedding from this PF government. The electrical wires could not take the constant back and forth of the electricity.
Can someone tell me exactly how many fire combating trucks are available to the whole of Lusaka? Along with this are there any locatable hydrants? Lusaka as a city is a disaster and to think that the colonial government had better planning for all sectors as cities grew! Please all those that were not born when the country was known as Northern Rhodesia must think what they see in the developed countries was not copied to Zambia despite slower pace development was moving in the right direction!
Melissa management have seen the competition coming from the new shopping mall. Nowing that they will not withstand it what do they do, burn down their shop and claim insurance. Perfect timing for me
Good observation, but what if the insurance company does not have money to pay them? Things are bad bane.
What a tool – either you dont know what one goes through to claim insurance or you ignorant.
I take both
Thanks
BB2014
very stupid assumption. this is family business for 25 yrs, they do not burn it down, especially not before Xmas, which is the peak shopping season… now, we will be only able to buy South African stuffs, while melissa offered lot of local products…
You read my mind. From those pictures, the intensity of the fire looks like it had an additional accelerant to have burnt down the building in such a manner considering that it only started at 05:30 am. The intensity of the fire looks the same from left to right. Unless they had gas appliances in there, otherwise this screams insurance.
To both of you 1diots up there (mushota and maheu), who says u can’t burn down a building for money when it’s Xmas time or whether it has existed for 25 years? You are very naive. Pull your heads out of that dark dump place.
Not a fair comment I frequently shop at Melissa and I don’t think such a scum can be conceived by the owner ….. besides why would you do such a thing at Peak shopping season….You would rather even wait till January or February to do that
To all of you fools saying this was an insurance scam, guess what?? They had no insurance in place. Think about what heartless nonsense comes out of your mouths before knowing any facts! The family is so broken right now and you fools are here making negative comments to pass your time… !!! Oh and as for ‘unless they sold gas hoe could the fire spread so badly shani shani….’ they sold alot of alcohol don’t forget.
How sad
Stop politicizing everything! It may just be good to conclude after investigations
This is PF, result of load shedding.
Profits over the decades that Melissa has been operating could have surely been invested in robust fire fighting installations with smoke detectors and sprinklers to mitigate such things. Sabotage or not our preparedness as a nation in disaster management leaves a lot to be desired. Even when we know the fire fighting apparatus is deficient we keep loading heaps of blame on them while groping around to justify our ineptitude with the trend of the day – in this case political sabotage.
Who else???- its HH and UPND. We have never experienced such fires before but just after the disputed elections HH and UPND started by burning houses for their perceived PF supporters , government Offices in their strong hold , then private infrastructure. This has continued and now they are extending it to vital installations like Power supply system etc.
Please HH and UPND you are just de-campaigning yourselves. Shame shame.
Are they related to Horseshoe pub?
Meant are the owners related to the Horseshoe pub?
Guess how many fire tenders the money spent on buying the armored police vehicles from RSA, could have bought? Mellisa is the only Zambian “supermarket” which competes with the foreign owned chainstores, to a small extent. It will take about six months to restore what has been destroyed there. Meanwhile its “ALOOTER CONTINUA”. Maybe Trump had a good point after all.
wait for the official report unlike beating around political garments……. watch and learn in silence
What a sad heart breaking experience for the shop owners. ..
Ka good insurance payout apa kangena kudala.
It’s sad that Zambia has minds like Muzhinga’s.
The writer of this story has more infomation about this infernal. Bo Police, the author of this article is a ‘prime witness’ to who and why the fire was started. Mufunseni uyu writer Bwana Officer.
Sorry melissa. I like this shop. It has everything. You will rise in the name of Jesus Christ. amen
When is Lungu going to stop his cadres from doing such rubbish! Son of a gang!
The colour of the fire resembles UPND party regalia. Red for danger bane.
You are colour blind!
Holy MAST fire
Sulphur and Brimstone
sad!!!!!
The timing is terrible! Xmas is around the corner, PNP has just opened at the new mall in Kabulonga & lately their have been fires which seem to be set by some opponents of progress.
It is very sad that this shop with fresh bread that I love has gone up in flames!
Very sad! 🙁
Dog Bwalya will tell you that it is HH who burnt the shop.
Melissa, we know you will rise back from this minor setup. We will support you… This is our super market. Good luck Melissa SuperMarket Management….
God help us, whatever the cause of the Melissa-Kabulonga inferno is!
It’s high time the Local Authorities ensured that any property in Zambia (public or private) should be installed with automatic fire/smoke sensors to avoid such calamities, blaming each other or even making speculations (whether true or false). Afterall, Councils are supposed to conduct regular inspections of such business houses.
Better to have goods soaked (after triggering “showers” of fire-extinguishing liquid, than losing property and the Zambian tax-payers’ money.
Comment:very sad
very very sad indeed
This withour doubt is the work of UPND. Those Satanists want to render Zambia ungovernable
This is really terrible and I love shopping from mellisa oh my God what is happening…my mellisa bread in flames why??this person who did this is really a bad person and we are in Xmas season
Melissa was a Kabulonga institution. Friendliest staff and fastest cashiers ever! The building was ready for a makeover- let’s hope that this is Melissa’s opportunity to rise like a phoenix from the ashes ;+]