Fire last night swept through Lusaka’s Soweto Market destroying six makeshift restaurants and two makeshift bars.
However, quick response by Lusaka City Council (LCC) Fire Brigade last night contained the possible fire disaster at the market.
The fire started around 21:00 hours from one of the makeshift restaurants.
LCC Assistant Public Relations Manager George Sichimba says alert marketeers noticed the fire immediately called the toll free line 993 and the LCC fire brigade quickly responded by dispatching all the four new fire tenders.
Mr. Sichimba says the fire was in no time contained except for six makeshift restaurants and two makeshift bars which had already been completely gutted by the time the team arrived at the scene.
He says preliminary investigations indicate that the fire started from one of the makeshift restaurants as a result of the cooking pot which was left on the blazier unattended.
Mr. Sichimba tells QTV News that it is alleged that the boy who was cooking something in the affected shop left the pot on the blazier to go and watch Brazil Vs Belgium soccer match at the nearby pub.
He discloses that the boy was so much taken by the thrilling game forgetting that he left the pot on fire which resulted in the contents burning and the fire spread to nearby shops.
The LCC Assistant Public Relations Manager has since warned that this is a fire prone period and marketeers and the general public should take extra care by not leaving fires unattended to.
“Fire destroys Soweto makeshift bars & restaurants” -this means LCC is still allowing poor quality cholera inducing food joints to operate.
LCC responded by dispatching all the four new fire tenders worth a whooping $4million all together ..if only people knew how many more firetrucks you can get with that kind of money.
This is what happens when you don’t create an Inquiry into an accident so recommendations can be made as the same mistakes are repeated….even when you build the new market the same incidents will arise as we never learn from anything up to now the cause of that fire where this lazy thing announced state of emergence has never been established.
So PF is at it again burning,the markets.
Is PF trying to create another case for buying more expensive fire tenders afain?
Its PF cadres responsible for guarding the market that have set it on fire.
Lungu must go by any means possible.
Albeit the President already knew who started the fire just like he did the last time
Really laughable that the truck in the photo costs $1 million …I hope the people involved in that transaction are brought to book in the future !!
The 1 million Dollar TERMINATOR at work , thumbs up to PF GOVERNMENT FOR PROCURING THESE FIRE TENDERS , WE CAN SEE THE value for money at WORK NOW
Do your maths right what value for money that 4 million USD that the 4 fire engines cost would have put up a modern market with fire hydrants and security systems and the market through revenues collected would have generated enough income to purchase fire engines
This upnd tribalist called JJ, he does not mention that some of the officials involved in what he calls fire engine corruption are actually his party officials serving their party purpose as well as his own pockets. You will not dupe us jj, wachepa sana. And anyway the fire engines averted a disaster, to the disappointment of jj!!
Again the same drivel about foools in UPND!!
And may the makeshift stalls remain gutted to the ground until upnd, h.h and jj form government in 2051.
And for jj, what is there to investigate and spend money unnecessarily when you can just manage your political frustrations with h.h and stop your stupiod arson? Wasting money investigating obvious arson by upnd is the same as what you pretend to condemn about the fire engines .
Same rubbish again about your silly HH and busy foools in UPND….you are clearly an empty tin like that man Sharon…this money $750K stolen from each Truck unit could have been used to procure beds and improving other front-line services for your children but you don’t see it that way you would rather boot-lick!!
#4 ANYOKO, you are very right. In fact what pisse.d off the upnd about the TERMINATOR fire engines is the fact that there is something to fight upnd fires, and NOT the 1m dollars jj keeps singing about.
google.co.uk/amp/s/www.crawleyhappytimes.co.uk/new-state-of-the-art-fire-engine-for-crawley/amp/
Each of those fake scania conversions would have bought 3 of the above….can you see anything wrong with this comparison..
This is what a £280 k fire truck looks like…..
google.co.uk/amp/s/www.crawleyhappytimes.co.uk/new-state-of-the-art-fire-engine-for-crawley/amp/
Those in the picture look like $120k scanias converted into fire trucks at Soweto market ……how much did the cost again ?
I have seen City Council Fire Trucks from UK boroughs same model SCANIA but higher spec yet cheaper than those rip offs in the photo!!
Even these rats trying to justify spending $1 million on each of those fake trucks should feel some sympathy for Zambia and the $17 billion owed….
Bars need to be banned from all markets especially Soweto.
People are so used to scrounging for everything that they don’t realise that they can live better under a corruption-free and well managed government. This excessive expenditure on fire engines has been accepted despite all the evidence that they were abnormally overpriced. Could it be that people are just too scared of the government to even criticise it constructively?
Huge cognitive dissonance here – i can’t fathom the $1m firetrucks being used to rescue worthless shacks.
Lungu benefited from this paying 42/42 , otherwise no sane leader would sanction such costs……the underground FIC says lungu pocketed $5 million.
Mean while Pilato is facing the law for protesting against corruption I like that the PF is building roads but at what cost that’s the issue because if you are running a country you borrow 50 billion with an interest of lets say 40% then you use only 35% of the money then 65% is lost to corruption and theft for me it’s better not to not build and borrow because it’s counter productive .We should address the corruption and public theft looming our nation and arresting Pilato and attacking FIC will not help us let us put up policies such as declaring of assets for public servants including ministers and the president every year ,e t c