MASERU — Property worth about M2 million was reduced to ashes after a fire gutted a furniture shop in the Maseru industrial area on Sunday night.
Investigators suspect that the fire at Selkol, a furniture manufacturing company, could have been caused by an electrical fault.
Selkol’s mananing director Osmansally Moosa said the fire started at around 12 midnight on Sunday but he was only informed at around 1am.
He said property damaged included gas stoves, kitchen sets, chairs and doors.
Fire fighters could have managed to save most of the property if the industrial area had a fire hydrant nearby, Moosa said.
“Our country is getting industrialised and it is up to the water authority to ensure that there are enough fire hydrants in the area,” Moosa said.
“It’s traumatising to watch your property going up in flames because we don’t have basic things like fire hydrants in the area.”
He said the fire had not been completely put down by Tuesday night.
One of the fire-fighters Thabiso Sefuthi who participated in the operation said they received a distress call around midnight and responded immediately.
“We got there immediately but we ran out of water. We had to go to the American Embassy to get water as there are no fire tanks around the industrial area,” Sefuthi said.“Had there been water tanks I believe we could have done much better,” Sefuthi said.
