The Harare City Council Fire Fighters at the scene managed to put the fire down before serious damage.
By Edward Tapfumaneyi
Occupants of Ahmed House located at Number 21 Robson Manyika Street in Harare CBD were lucky to escape unhurt after their building caught fire this Wednesday afternoon.
The fire is suspected to have started at the basement from a lithium battery, said to have exploded.
According to eye witnesses, there was minimal destruction of property while no injuries were recorded.
“We thank God no casualties or serious damages of property were recorded as people evacuated the building before the damage. The fire-brigade arrived in time and the fire was quenched,” said one of the eye witnesses.
Romano Scot, one of the workers who was in the building at the time of the incident gave some insights on how the accident occurred.
“I was in the basement, when I saw guys from Metaphor Homes electronics, bringing in some solar equipment into their store room which is in the basement and I heard an explosion from the lithium battery which resulted in a blaze of fire and people began to evacuate from the building,” he said.
Ahmed House building is currently under renovation, with works concentrated in the first and basement floors. The building is being converted into a shopping mall.
“We are actually in the process of partitioning the building for a shopping mall, and most of the rooms in the basement are not yet ready for use. Metaphor Homes was just using one of the rooms as a store room and that’s where the fire erupted from,” said one of the building administrators who requested anonymity.
Efforts to get a comment from Metaphor Homes were fruitless as no one from their company was in the vicinity. Their call went unanswered.
Some onlookers sought to benefit from the accident, vandalized shops and tried to loot but were intercepted by police details from the nearby Harare Central Police station who arrived well in time.
This is not the first fire incident on a building in Harare CBD. Last year on August 15, fire which erupted from the basement at Hungwe House destroyed property worth thousands of dollars.
