Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique (Maputo)
20 July 2009
Maputo — A fire broke out on the premises of the Kayum Centre, a large shop in central Maputo specialising in electrical appliances, early on Sunday morning, causing losses that might run into millions of dollars.
The fire started at about 4:00 a.m. in the basement, which is used as a warehouse, and was not finally extinguished until Monday morning, 30 hours later. The causes of the fire have not yet been determined, but it is believed that a short circuit may have occurred in the basement electrical system. The task of the public fire brigade was made difficult by inadequate equipment, and by the dense smoke making it difficult to see anything inside the basement. The fire was regarded as serious enough to mobilise fire fighting units from Maputo airport, and from the MOZAL aluminium smelter.
The Kayum Centre occupied the basement and first two floors of an apartment block. During the fire the electricity supply to the entire building was disconnected. Several of the families living in the upper floors opted to leave the building and spent Sunday night with friends or relatives.
Fire brigade officer Renato Taveira told AIM that the blaze was not so intense as to endanger the stability of the building. The shop itself was not seriously damaged, but everything in the basement was destroyed.
About 50 fire fighters took part in the operation, using some 200,000 litres of water. By early afternoon, there was still some smoke drifting out of the basement, while firemen worked on pumping out the water they had poured in the previous day.
Kayum Centre workers meanwhile emptied the shop of all the unharmed goods, and moved them to a more secure site. All the windows were broken on Sunday to allow smoke to escape.
The Kayum Centre is part of the MBS chain of shops, owned by Momade Bashir Sulemane.
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