Two toddlers burnt beyond recognition

By Thupeyo Muleya

Two children aged three and four years were burnt to death when a house in Dulivhadzimu Suburb (Ward 5) they were sleeping in caught fire on Saturday night.

Municipality of Beitbridge Fire Fighters said yesterday they suspected the fire started from a candle.

“We are yet to ascertain the exact cause of the fire, but our initial observations indicate that the fire could have started from a candle.

“Indications are that the now deceased were sleeping in the room where a candle was left unattended. It then fell and caused the fire which spread to two other rooms.

“The two minors were trapped in the inferno and were burnt beyond recognition,” said Mr George Maseko, the head of Municipality Emergency Services.

He said firefighters were called in to put out the fire, but unfortunately they found the minors already engulfed by the inferno.

Mr Maseko said the bodies were yet to be retrieved under the debris as they await forensic investigators to make on-the-scene observations.

The Officer Commanding Beitbridge District, Chief Superintendent Tichaona Nyongo, said he was yet to get details from those on the ground.

“We are still compiling details on the ground,” he said.

Ward 5 councillor Mr Granger “Hungwe” Nyoni described the incident as devastating.

“This is a sad loss to both the family and community of Beitbridge. We await the outcome of investigations into this incident,” he said.

The latest incident brings to eight the total number of fires that have occurred in the border town since the beginning of the year.

In January property worth RTGS$190 000 was destroyed when a customs warehouse caught fire on the export section within Beitbridge Border Post.

Six other houses in the town were destroyed by electrical faults and gas-related infernos. The Chronicle