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People assess the damage

Innocent Ruwende and Lovemore Mataire
An inferno razed down the Glen View Home Industry Complex along Willowvale Road in Harare yesterday, destroying property worth millions of dollars belonging to over 6 000 informal traders. The fire reportedly started at around 3am and people who live near the complex rushed to battle to put it out for three hours fearing that it could spread to their houses.

The Harare Fire Brigade arrived at around 4am with four trucks and had to improvise to get water from a nearby stream because the hydrant in the complex was vandalised.

So ferocious was the blaze that it consumed most of the goods, forcing traders to sift through ashes for remnants.

Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa told National Assembly Members yesterday that the Government sympathised with those who lost their wares.

He said there were committees of Government that would work towards addressing the problem.

VP Mnangagwa was responding to a question from Glen View North MP Mr Fani Munengami during the questions without notice session.

Harare Provincial Affairs Minister Miriam Chikukwa urged the Government to urgently assist the traders whose wares and machinery were destroyed.

She made the appeal while addressing delegates and exhibitors at the ongoing Global Small and Medium Enterprises Expo at Rainbow Towers in Harare.

“As Minister of State for Harare Metropolitan Province, I am appealing to Government as well as the business community to come and assist the Glen View complex traders because these people are people who had really made it and some of them were graduating into really big manufacturing companies, but now they have come to zero,” said Minister Chikukwa.

She said more than 6 000 operators, who were mostly into manufacturing had been affected.

Harare Mayor Councillor Bernard Manyenyeni, who visited the complex to assess the damage, described the inferno as a tragedy.

“It’s a tragedy,” he said.

“The size of this fire is not what I would have imagined. It’s 10 to 20 times the size I would have thought from a distance. A lot of workmen have been affected, most of their wares looked like they were ready for the market.

“They seem to have lost a lot of finished goods and also given the inability of our small scale business people to mobilise resources, we see a lot of financial stress emerging from this.”

Clr Manyenyeni said a lot of lessons should be learnt from the site and other similar crowded sites for small to medium enterprises. He commended the Harare Fire Brigade for responding swiftly to the emergency, although he conceded that it was overwhelmed by the magnitude of the fire.

“Among the lessons we are learning is that we need more hydrants,” said Clr Manyenyeni.

“We are told our only hydrant was actually vandalised, which is regrettable.

Glen View South legislator Mr Pius Madzinga said a lot of families had been deprived of their only source of income.

“It’s a great loss,” he said. “We are yet to know the cause of the fire. This incident has shocked the community and we call upon the corporate sector and Government to assist the affected traders.

“There is need for the provision of funds so that they can set up shop again. This fire was not normal, this is like a planned thing.”

A witness, Mr Misheck Halahala, said he heard a large noise and rushed to inquire and noticed that fire was gutting down property at the complex.

“I saw a ball of fire inside the complex and we destroyed a precast wall to gain entry and started fighting the fire using water buckets,” he said.

“We noticed the bank (ZB Bank) was about to burn, so we concentrated on saving the bank.”

Another witness, Mr Reginald Chananda, said the fire broke out around 3am and they tried to fight it, but they were overwhelmed.