13 Nov 2016

The Kgabung family in Molepolole on November 10 watched in disbelief when their house burnt to ashes after a five-year-old boy allegedly torched it.
The ferocious fire that took almost two hours to totally put off, consumed everything save for a set of sofas and a television screen and a monitor as the only items that were salvaged.
In an interview, Mr Balekile Kgabung said he arrived at the scene before 5pm and found the house guttered in flames and not much could be salvaged as the roof had already collapsed.
Narrating the ordeal, a 12-year-old girl who is also a family member said after they had arrived home from school, she together with her 10-year-old sister and five-year old little brother got in the house to change.
She said their brother also went to one of the bedrooms to change when they saw a smoke coming from the passage door while they (the two sisters) were resting in the living room.
She stated that she quickly ran to fetch a bucket of water and went the direction where the smoke was coming from.
She said she tried to open the passage door and did not open.  
She then kicked it open and poured the water on the passage way so that she could rescue the little boy who was at this time trapped in the room where the smoke was coming from.
An eyewitness Mr Thobo Nthukwi said when he arrived at the scene, he saw the house already in furious flames.
He then called the police and the fire brigade and their lines rang unanswered.
He said he then rushed to the firebrigade offices in Molepolole to alert them of the incident.
Another eyewitness who is also a neighbour, Mr Shianyana Babitseng said when he arrived at the scene, he found that one of the bedrooms was up in flames.  
He explained that he together with people who had already gathered managed to recover the sofas but they could not recover other items because the smoke was so intense and they were not wearing protective clothing.  
He also cited that, the fact that Lekgwapheng area in Molepolole had an acute shortage of water, this worsened the situation as there was no water that they could use to put off the fire.  He stressed that if there was water, they could have managed to salvage most of the household items.Rural Metro Botswana chief fire officer, Mr Jacques Naude refuted claims that they delayed to arrive at the scene.
He, however, explained why they sometimes arrived a bit late.  
One of their major concerns was that Molepolole did not have street names, this factor on its own contributed in delayed response.
Another issue was that of shortage of water was another big challenge such that they had to draw water from a borehole roughly 20km from their offices.  
Traffic jam also contributed  to delay in response time .
Molepolole police station commander, Superintendent Charles Mbengwa confirmed the incident, saying no fatalities were recorded as a result of the incident.  ends