PROPERTY worth millions of dollars yesterday went up in smoke after an inferno razed a warehouse at the Beitbridge Customs and Excise Station.
It is the third State warehouse at Beitbridge to go up in flames in the past few years.
The warehouse was filled with goods seized at the Beitbridge Border Post almost a year ago. Ideally, the goods should have been auctioned within three months of seizure.
“We have not yet established the cause of the fire and damage because I have not been on the ground. I am currently in Bulawayo and I will be back in Harare tomorrow, so I expect to hear updates at around 11 am [tomorrow] and give you concrete responses,” Muwonwa said.
Muwonwa said questions had been forwarded to Beitbridge and she was awaiting response.
A Zimra officer who spoke on condition of anonymity said ill-equipped local firemen failed to douse the inferno.
“Our warehouse has been gutted by fire just after 6am and what caused the fire has not yet been established. Two fire brigade vehicles came to extinguish the fire, but that was too late and I doubt if they had water,” the official said.
Beitbridge’s head of the Civil Protection Unit, Kilibone Ndou Mbedzi, said there was need for a bigger fire station in Beitbridge.
“This is not the first fire of such a magnitude and we need a bigger fire station. It’s unfortunate this is coming after a storm disaster again,” she said.
Mbedzi, who is also the district administrator at Beitbridge, sent an SOS to the Musina Municipality, whose crew arrived within minutes.
“There are plans for a bigger fire station at Beitbridge in the upcoming upgrade of the border post, but we need it now rather than later. It’s not only the border post, but even the residential areas where fires have broken out,” she said.
“This is quite a blow,” Mbedzi said.
Beitbridge town clerk Loud Ramagkapola concurred, calling on the government to speed up construction of a bigger fire station in Beitbridge.
