Two (2) haulage truck horses, 1 truck trailer, and thousands of bales were Monday burnt in a fire at a place that sells hay Bales at the intersection of Ascot Road, Esigodini Road and 3rd Street, Bulawayo.
From a quick check on Facebook, bales cost anything between $1 and $4 so at least several thousands of dollars worth of hay bales.
Where: A place that sells hay Bales at the intersection of Ascot Road, Esigodini Road and 3rd Street.
Who: The place is said to be operated by a person only identified as Craig by those at the scene.
What: From a witness at the scene, the fire was caused by the backfiring of a car that had been loaded with hay. The fire from the exhaust lit the grass and the whole hay warehouse went on fire. A haulage truck full of hay bales (yet to be offloaded) parked next to the warehouse also caught fire. Subsequently, another truck parked next to that one also caught fire.
When: Witnesses said the fire started at around 12:45hrs. The fire brigade was only called at 1 pm, but they only came to the place around 2pm.
Background:
The people at the scene also said there didn’t seem to be any process for dealing with such a crisis and that there were no fire extinguishers at the place.
The wife of the owner of the business is said to have attended the scene and cried when she saw what had happened.
Pictures and video:
A Pindula News correspondent took the photos above around 1445hrs.
The correspondent confirmed seeing a Bulawayo City Council (BCC) water engine loading water on a hydrant in the nearby residential area of Suburbs around 1:15 pm but could not establish then that they were loading the water for an active fire.
So it could be true that it took them more than 30 minutes to start putting out the fire.