Anthony Mulowa
4 October 2008
FIRE yesterday swept through Lusaka's Radio Phoenix and the entire 13th floor of Zimco House destroying broadcasting equipment worth millions of Kwacha.
This is the second time that Radio Phoenix has been gutted, the first having been in 1997 when the station was based at Society House.
Yesterday's fire, which started at 14:30 hours at the top floor of Zimco House, is suspected to have been caused by an electrical fault.
The Lusaka City Council (LCC) fire brigade only managed to get to Zimco House on Cairo Road on the south end after 30 minutes when the fire was almost receding.
A reinforcement of two fire engines from the Zambia Air Force (ZAF) helped put out the fire around 16:00 hours.
Radio Phoenix proprietor, Errol Hickey who watched helplessly as the station was being engulfed in flames said he could not quantify the extent of the damage but stated that it was substantial.
Mr Hickey said he had contacted the National Airport Corporation and the LCC fire brigade to put out the fire.
Mr Hickey said the recording studios, videos and computers were damaged in the inferno.
"There is a lot ofequipment and cameras in there," he said.
Radio Phoenix has completely gone off air.
LCC public relations officer, Henry Kapata who rushed to the scene said his office received a telephone call around 14:30 hours that Radio Phoenix was on fire.
Mr Kapata said the council currently has one fire engine, which at that time was heading to Mungwi Road in the industrial area where another fire was reported.
He said the fire hydrants in most of the buildings in Lusaka which supply water to the fire engines, were not maintained hence water had to be fetched from elsewhere.
He said the council was yet to investigate what exactly caused the fire at the building.
"We are yet to investigate what caused the fire but we are told it was an electrical fault," he said.
Meanwhile, business came to a standstill on Cairo Road as many shoppers, vendors and several employees from nearby firms rushed to the scene to catch a glimpse of the fire.
Some shops were even forced to close early for fear of a riot by some vendors and street kids who were part of the crowd.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 The Times of Zambia. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
