Kuisebmond ablaze

Three separate fires destroyed eight homes and more than 30 shacks in Walvis Bay’s Kuisebmond residential area on Friday. Newly appointed acting Fire Chief Dennis Basson described the day as a baptism of fire for him. Basson and his team of fire fighters had a busy day battling flames on three separate occasions and venues in Kuisebmond. “We managed to put out three blazes and prevented flames fuelled by a strong westerly breeze which prevailed in Walvis Bay on the day from spreading to adjacent properties and causing further destruction. Luckily no lives were lost,” said a visibly tired Basson at the scene of the last fire where the most destruction (eight houses and more than 20 shacks destroyed) occurred at approximately 22:00. In the first incident which occurred in the morning, firemen rushed to a property in Kuisebmond and quelled a fire raging in a room at a house situated in !Nues Street. According to Basson an electrical short caused the fire. Six shacks were destroyed in a second blaze which occurred at two adjacent premises in Martin Billie Street at about 14:15. A boiling pot left unattended on a stove by someone cooking in a backyard shack situated at House No 28 was named as the probable cause of the fire. A group of women sitting in front of one of the neighbouring houses in the street smelled smoke and investigated. They discovered that one of the shacks was on fire and called the fire brigade. A thick cloud of smoke filled the air, while people rushed to save whatever belongings they could. Some of the neighbours hurriedly connected garden hoses to taps and used buckets to curb the rapidly spreading flames before the fire brigade arrived. The flames destroyed six shacks within moments. Flames also devoured eight homes and more than 20 shacks in the immediate vicinity of House No 33219 B in the last incident on Friday evening. The cause of this fire is still unknown. A leading contributor to the huge amount of destruction caused is the density of the shacks. Firemen were at the scene within moments and battled the leaping flames from the rooftops of adjacent houses for approximately 30 minutes before they managed to extinguish the fire and neutralise a huge threat to the surrounding houses. “Our approach prevented a disaster,” said Basson. WALVIS BAY OTIS FINCK