71-year-old granny house in house inferno

Zim Now Writer

A 71-year-old granny from Mutare died after fire razed down their six-roomed Chikanga house on Tuesday night.

The cause of the fire is not yet clear although house-owner Leonard Matere believes it emanated from an electrical fault in the lounge when power was restored after load-shedding

Matere sustained serious injuries on the hands, arms and face. His mother, Idah Matere died in the inferno while his three minor children and four other people escaped unhurt.

Neighbours reportedly woke up the Materes by banging doors and breaking windows when they saw the house was on fire.

“We would have suffocated and burnt to death in our slumber because we did not even realise that a fire had started when power was restored. It was our tenants and neighbours who first saw the fire. They rushed out and broke our windowpanes to wake us up.

“When I tried to open the main door, my mother was beside me, helping me and I do not know when she fell down,” said Matere.

He said when he failed to open the door, he rushed back to the kids’ bedroom. Neighbours helped him to remove the burglar bar from the bedroom window and helped the children escape but he could not find his mother.

“When the Fire Brigade finally came back with more water, they discovered my mother’s body next to the door. All the time we were looking for her, she was being consumed by the fire,” he said.

Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC) reportedly came to the house and carried out assessments, trying to ascertain the cause of the fire.

Provincial police spokesperson for Manicaland, Inspector Nobert Muzondo said they had not received the fire incident report as yet.