Illegal fuel dealer burnt in inferno

Illegal fuel dealer burnt in inferno

Kazungula, February 04, 2014—A 43 year old woman of Kazungula is nursing serious wounds on her body after her house caught fire on Sunday night.

Emeldah Muketoi, an illegal fuel dealer got burnt in the inferno as she was rescuing her four children and a niece from the house.

The victim told ZANIS in an interview today that she lit a candle and left it burning in the sitting room while the children were sleeping in the house and went out to a neighbours’ house.

Mrs. Muketoi explained that when she came back from visiting, she found her house burning and unlocked it but only managed to rescue her children.

She disclosed that property worth thousands of kwacha including a total cash of K1,500 that was in the house got burnt in the inferno.

A check by ZANIS at the scene of the incident this morning discovered that there could have been a container of fuel that exploded inside the house causing serious damages.

Mrs. Muketoi however, denied keeping containers of fuel in her house saying that she hides the fuel containers in the bush at night.

Meanwhile, Kazungula District Director of Works Mwashya Musonda appealed to illegal fuel dealers to avoid the illegal business saying such accidents were the repercussions of the trend.

Mr. Musonda sounded the warning when he was commenting on Mrs. Muketoi’s issue.

He said lack of a filling station in Kazungula was causing most people to engage in illegal fuel trading which they buy from nearby Kasane in Botswana.

Mr. Musonda said there is need to find a lasting solution to the prevailing situation by looking for an investor to build a filling station in Kazungula so that such illegal practices could be avoided.