Mysterious fire destroys shops in Thohoyandou

In recent times, Thohoyandou town has been hit hard by mysterious fires which have left heavy losses in their wake.

Not long ago, a big complex was completely gutted when a massive fire swept through it, leaving millions of rands in damages.

This weekend, another complex caught fire and some shops had all their contents destroyed. Saturday morning shoppers were in for a big shock when they arrived at the complex, only to find it  engulfed in smoke.

One of the shops, Lewis Furnishers, was completely gutted and nothing was saved from the shop. Damage at the shop is estimated in excess of R1 million. Adjacent shops were not spared either as they had some losses.

The smoke, which was seen many kilometres away from the town, was noticed in the early hours of Saturday. It is alleged that fire fighters who responded to the fire were left helpless and just stood by as they did not have water.

Reacting to allegations that the Vhembe fire fighters arrived at the scene but could not do anything as they did not have water, Vhembe district spokesperson Mr Matodzi Ralushai said they had had a breakdown with the truck they were using.

"We responded in time, at about 04:50, only to find that our truck had technical problems. Our nearest station is at Mutale and we had to wait for them. Unfortunately, some of the shops were already gutted when they arrived. They took control, however, and stopped it from spreading to other shops. We will see to it that our vehicles are maintained at all times to avert situations like this one," added Ralushai.

Thohoyandou police spokesperson Const Avhafarei Tshiovhe said that the police had opened an arson docket and a full investigation to determine the cause of the fire was underway. “We have roped in our forensic colleagues, who are sifting the scene for evidence," added Tshiovhe.

Date:15 November 2013

By: Elmon Tshikhudo

Elmon Tshikhudo started off as a photographer. He developed an interest in writing and started submitting articles to local as well as national publications. He became part of the Limpopo Mirror family in 2005 and was a permanent part of the news team until 2019.

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