Look: Major fire reduces 50 barracas to ashes in Quelimane central market

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Look: Major fire reduces 50 barracas to ashes in Quelimane central market

6:11 CAT | 28 Jan 2021

Photos: Social Media

Fifty barracas [samll shops] in Quelimane central market were consumed by a major fire in the early hours of this morning. The cause of the fire has not yet been established.

TV Miramar reports that the owners of the barracas, who themselves tried to quell the flames, are dissatisfied with the firefighters’ response.

A saddened Hélia Albino, is one of the vendors affected by the tragedy, says she does not how she will be able get her business running again.

“I really don’t know how I’m going to get my business back up and running. I lost everything I need to support my children. The fire broke out at dawn and I couldn’t do anything to save my merchandise,” she said, tearfully.

But firefighters attending the scene of the fire faced a major hurdle: they had no water in their tanker trucks.

Manuel Cumaio, head of section at the National Public Salvation Service [SENSAP] in Quelimane, blamed the hiccough on the Water Supply Investment and Heritage Fund (FIPAG), saying that, when water was requested to fill the firefighters’ trucks, the FIPAG tanks were empty because of a malfunction.

“So we had to go as far as 30 kilometres away to find water, and that did not allow us to be effective in reducing the number of stalls burned to ashes. We regret this, but without water, it was not possible,” Cumaio said.

Faquira Massalo, director of FIPAG in Quelimane, says that the firefighters’ allegations are unfounded, and that the supply of water to fire trucks starts in the morning and runs until 10 p.m..

“In this period [of time for filling up their vehicles], we believe that the firefighters would have had enough reserves, namely because they had already refilled their vehicles [with water, yesterday morning], and we don’t know where they took so much water,” he said.

Chief of Operations of the Municipal Police, Óscar Ferreira, told Diário da Zambezia that the fire started around 1:00 a.m., and firefighters were alerted at SENSAP and Mozambique Airports, but the fire was difficult to control because of the intensity of the flames.

Ferreira also said that an electrical short circuit may have been to blame for the fire.

According to Miramar, the fire broke out at a stall selling electrical equipment.

Attempts to broach the market for the purposes of looting were quickly rebuffed by the protection police.