LISIKILI – Hundreds of people in Saili village, about 20 kilometres east of Katima Mulilo in the Zambezi Region, were left homeless after their homesteads were gutted by fire last Thursday afternoon. The fire is believed to have started in the veld and spread very quickly, although no injuries were reported.
Saili village has over 60 homesteads and only a few remained.
Luckily at the time of the fire the wind had stopped blowing as the fire truck that was summoned had allegedly run out of water.
Over one thousand people live in the village.
The fire started in the afternoon and after it consumed a large portion of the nearby grasslands spread to the thatched homesteads, causing an inferno to erupt.
When New Era arrived at the scene many homesteads had already succumbed to the blaze, with villagers scurrying around hoping to salvage what they could. Many helplessly watched their homes burn to the ground as help only came a few hours later.
Ngandu Ivan whose homestead was one the first to catch fire and was not home at the time said he lost “everything”. “I just got a few things from the house but they also burned. Everything is destroyed, even my documents. I was not home when the fire occurred. I really don’t know what to do now,” said Ivan.
“We just watched as one house burned after the other because we couldn’t do anything. The flames were just too much for us to do anything. A government fire truck came here only a few hours later but it was too late,” said one victim who wished to remain anonymous.
Fires in the area are common this time of the year and a similar disaster occurred back in 2001 when about nine homesteads were destroyed.
Learners at a nearby school were seen leaving school early to rush home to save their few possessions but to no avail.
“Everything is burned, my books and my school uniform. I don’t even know how I will go to school tomorrow,” said Mushabati Kalalula a Grade 10 learner at Lisikili Combined School.
Zambezi regional governor Lawrence Sampofu could not be reached for comment at the time of going to press but regional council chairperson, Raphael Mbala, who was in Windhoek at the time, said a disaster risk management team had been dispatched to assess the impact of the fire.