Three fighfighters escaped death by the skin of their teeth when their uniforms caught fire at an alcohol-distilling plant in Harare.
Tapera Chipara, Naboth Zvaita and Wisdom Yonamu were quickly ferried to Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals, the biggest health institution in Zimbabwe, after they were trapped inside a building on Sunday, where they were rescuing five employees who had been locked in by their bosses during working hours.
Harare City Council acting principal communications officer Michael Chideme said the team had responded to a fire outbreak at an “illegal storage facility” in the Graniteside industrial area of Harare, which had been caused by ethanol.
“A fire broke out during decanting,” he said, adding the company kept around 30,000 litres of ethanol “without a licence”.
Chideme said the firefighters walked into the facility ignorant of the burning ethanol, and as soon as they entered, there was an explosion and a fireball.
“However, they managed to walk out, but they sustained serious injuries,” he said.
They will be airlifted to South Africa for specialised treatment, African News Agency heard. Five employees were left locked inside the facility, and during the decanting process, the fire broke out.
They sustained injuries and were only rescued through a window from the upper floor of the two-storey building. After a three-hour-long struggle, the team managed to douse the flames, despite using limited water supplies, as Harare went throughout the weekend without a drop from the taps.
National police spokesperson senior assistant commissioner Charity Charamba could not be reached for comment, while her Harare province counterpart, Chief Superintendent Paul Nyathi’s phone continually rang unanswered.
Efforts to contact the company’s management were fruitless either.
