Fire leaves 48 families homeless in Chamanculo B, Maputo city – Watch

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Fire leaves 48 families homeless in Chamanculo B, Maputo city – Watch

4:19 CAT | 13 Aug 2021

Photo: O País

At least 48 families lost their homes as a result of a fire in Maputo’s Chamanculo B neighbourhood on Thursday afternoon. According to the National Public Safety Service (SENSAP), there were no deaths or injuries. An electrical short circuit is thought to have caused the blaze.

The fire in Maputo’s Chamanculo B neighbourhood early on Thursday afternoon consumed a large number of houses. No-one was injured or killed, there being nobody in the affected homes at the time of the incident.

The owners of the homes now burned to ashes are desperate. Their tears draw the attention and generate knife-edge emotions. One such is Mrs Regina Orlando, whose possessions were devoured by the flames. She says she has nowhere to go and doesn’t know what to do with her four children.

˝Everything we had has burned. I don’t know how the fire started, because I was in the market selling when my children came to tell me,” she complained, before asking for help. “We are asking for help, at least for shelter, so we can sleep, and food to feed ourselves.”

Some families were so despairing that they did not want to talk about what happened to them, never imagining that they could be left absolutely destitute in the blink of an eye.

Resident Sheila Manuel was the one who called SENSAP, and she said that the help took a long time to arrive.

“The firefighters were late arriving – we were the ones who had to help. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to prevent a lot of damage, but, thank God, no-one died. The firefighters only arrived after your [STV] reporting team. They got to the scene only once the fire had grown to great proportions,” she said.

SENSAP however denied that it took a long time to reach the location, and says that an electrical short circuit could be the cause of the situation.

“We often receive this type of complaint [late response], but if you investigate closely, you’ll find that we didn’t take long to arrive. We have information that the fire started in a residence where the owners were absent. According to preliminary investigations, it’s probably a short circuit,” a firefighter commented.

Maputo City Municipal Council said it was still carrying out damage assessment in order to better provide help to the families affected.

Source: O País / STV