Discarded Cigarette Stub May Have Caused Fire That Destroyed 40 NRZ Coaches In Bulawayo
The National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) has determined that a fire which destroyed 40 decommissioned coaches at its main station in Bulawayo in September may have been caused by a cigarette stub left by an employee, reported NewZimbabwe.com.
Initially, the parastatal suspected foul play, as the incident followed another fire involving coaches in Harare, raising suspicions of arson.
However, NRZ general manager Respina Zinyanduko, appearing before the Parliamentary Committee on Public Accounts, revealed that internal investigations suggest the fire was likely caused by a discarded cigarette stub. She said:
The initial report that I got from loss control as well as the report I got from a commission of inquiry that we set, it constituted of different departments of NRZ has indicated that it could be a fire was as a result of some employees, because we do not allow some people to smoke at work, some employees could have taken shelter in those coaches trying to hide and smoking a bit.
One of them might have left a stub that was still burning and there was the wind; it then resulted in the spread of fire.
Zinyanduko told the Committee that the decommissioned coaches had surpassed their operational lifespan and were awaiting disposal as scrap.
Due to the fire, the NRZ incurred a loss of US$40,000 in the value of these coaches. Said Zinyanduko:
The value that was lost was minimal because we had taken the seats from these coaches and they were fitted to those which were operational.
These were more like shells that were parked to be refurbished in the future or disposed of.
The value that was there was on the scrap value of the assets, I examined the coaches one by one myself and they are still in a condition in which we can dispose of them as scrap metal.
Those coaches in our books were carrying a value of about US$1,000 each because they were just shells.
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