Mzuzu fires: Confronting burning issues

Rushes. Thuds. Screams. Cries. Nervousness summed up the mood Sunday night as businesspeople raced to Mzuzu main market where goods were being ravaged by fire.

Like many in the dash, Towera Mzumara, who first lost her merchandise valued at about K700 000 after a fire outbreak on April 19, was only figuring herself resuming the life of uncertainty after just three months. During the brief break, in which some victims acquired business loans, many were just recovering from the blaze which saw about 500 traders losing goods estimated at K110 million.

But little did she know she would be hit again in the latest wave, which deprived 911 people of commodities worth nearly K298 million.

Gazing at her shop going up in smoke once more, she remembered how the assurance that “life goes on” saw her resumed business trips to South Africa to order blankets and cosmetics for her shop.

Gasping and wiping tears, she recounted: “The business was only recovering. Suddenly, I heard people hurrying to the market. Without knowing the cause and extent of the fire, I joined the race to the tower of smoke piercing the sky, screaming: ‘Fire! Fire! The market is on fire again!’ All I could do was to run to my shop.”

Dumbstruck, the woman was greeted by thousands who were already at the marketplace. The aggregate largely comprised the desperate trying to rescue pieces of their hard-earned wealth; the curious looking on as the flames hopped from one shop to another; the clueless not sure why they were not in bed, the overzealous blocking pathways fire fighters needed to get to the bottom of the fiery flames as well as the inquisitive with more questions than answers.

Repeated tragedy

That night, murmurs had it that the fire, like the one in April, started in the restaurants section.

Even the city council reports: “The cause of the fire is not clearly known, but it is rumoured that some restaurant owner allegedly left a pot of beans on a fire [burner] or mbaula to get cooked over the night. Unfortunately, around 9pm, the pot run out of water and the beans caught fire which spread out to other parts of the market.”

Restaurants’ owners committee chairperson Wilson Mbewe says it emanated from sparks on a nearby electricity pole and spread to a nearby tree where wires were perilously covered by leaves and flags of political parties—a twist eyewitness Raphael Matanje affirms.

On Monday, he narrated: “I was escorting a pregnant relative to Mzuzu Health Centre when I saw a big spark accompanied by an ear-splitting explosion on an electricity pole at the far corner of the market. In no time, a nearby tree was on fire and the whole market went up in smoke.”

Whatever the cause, Mzumara was only frantic to save her single most important source of livelihood. However, she was stopped a step from the needful by bouncers who sealed the gates to safeguard the disaster zone from looting which worsened their loss previously.

Grasping the iron bars, she burst into questions: “What wrong have I done to be struck by fire accidents one after the other? What am I going to do now?”

She needed no answer. Her questions aptly captured the grief and shock of many as the city’s fire brigade fought a futile battle with the raging flames ravaging the shops one by one.

On Tuesday, Minister of Local Government and Rural Development Tracizio Gowelo heard that the fire brigade rushed to the site and tried all they could to extinguish the inferno, but it was too big to be controlled until some kiosks had been fallen to create firebreaks.

On the fateful night, the rescue team had to do with only one fire engine to extinguish furious flames leaping out of hand on all prongs. The vehicle, bearing foreign registration number K386D00, is actually a donation from Britain. Another, from China, lies in disrepair following an accident on its way to Mzuzu. The city’s chief executive officer Thomas Chirwa revealed that yet another one, sourced by Ambassador Reuben Ngwenya from Japan, is on a ship waiting to arrive in Mzuzu in September.

Despite the drawback, the fire fighters had to safeguard two-storey buildings near the congested market. Bizarrely, they were seen scrambling for the spray gun in a futile effort to direct the water at the base of the fire and the spilling blaze simultaneously. At times, the extinguisher was intercepted by impatient traders dying for just a drop on their burning shops. At worst, the fire vehicle disappeared into darkness to refill and always reappeared at a different spot almost 40 minutes later.

No lessons learnt

“Once beaten twice shy” is an old saying in Mzuzu. Until the fateful Sunday when hoes, axes and machetes were used to create firebreaks—a job requiring heavy machines like the council’s grader which needs repairs worth K3 million having broken down while readying roads in Nkhata Bay North West for a rally graced by President Peter Mutharika’s predecessor—Joyce Banda.

But this was a night of futile attempts. Throughout, onlookers wondered: “Was it wise to continue erecting timber-and-carton stalls after the costly fire in April? Why were the restaurants still at the heart of the fire-prone market? Is it justifiable to have an entire city relying on one fire engine, a donation?

City boss Chirwa promised to build brick-and-mortar structures spaced about 1.5 metres apart for easy mobility in case of accidents. That was about 90 days ago, on the ashes where more susceptible stalls mushroomed.

Standing in the glow of the repeat of the accident, Chirwa bemoaned: “It is unfortunate that such fateful events have happened back-to-back in such a short time, but it appears the market caught fire at a wrong time as politicians were campaigning for votes. The city council was determined to bring sanity to the gutted site, but the process was hijacked by politicians.”

Market fires are to Malawian politicians what darkness and dump are to cockroaches. Those who hurried to Mzuzu in April included the fallen Deputy Minister of Local Government Godfrey Kamanya who ordered vendors to start rebuilding immediately; the then vice-president Khumbo Kachali who donated K1 million; and former sports minister Enoch Chihana who presented a K38 million cheque from the State-sponsored Malawi Rural Development Fund (Mardef) to 310 victims.

But donations are painkillers—not cocksure cure.

Unfortunately, politics did not end with Kamanya’s pronouncements which catalysed the shambolic rebuilding that exposed the city to more fire accidents.

By Tuesday, three ministers—Gowelo; Youth, Sports Development and Culture’s Grace Chiumia and Defence’s deputy Japi Mhango—sped to Mzuzu and spent minutes describing how the President was saddened by the repeated tragedy.

Yet nobody can pretend to be more saddened than the 1000 people who lost their economic mainstay, the breadwinners dying to know whether government will re-open the market for temporary rebuilding or allow the council to execute the long-term reconstruction plans.

“We have already bought the red-tape to cordon the area,” said Chirwa, who reportedly tabled a K110 million reconstruction proposal to central government three months ago. The cost of rebuilding has soared with the size of devastated area and affected population doubling up.

When asked about the way forward, Gowelo said: “There is no overnight solution to tragedies of this magnitude. We’ll go back to the drawing board to get to the bottom of the matter and find out if the market design is the challenge which must be addressed.”

The disappointed vendors, who feel ministerial visits are merely ploys to gain political mileage and cash in on their plight, urged their committee leader Stanley Simbeye to speak out on this.

In an interview, Simbeye stated: “I keenly listened to the minister and hearing him say government will help, but didn’t understand how.”

Lasting solutions

Putting an end to market fires is still one of the greatest challenges city authorities should not surrender to politicians. Replacing wood-and-carton markets with brick or more fire resistant structures is key to solving the problems.

Mzuzu City legislator Leonard Njikho said the repeated fires offer a wake-up call at a time most markets are just brick fences and slabs with vendors free to build as they wish. Built in 2003, Mzuzu is one of the ill-conceived markets.

“This is not the first market fire in Mzuzu and the money lost is enough for construction of a proper market. We need to find enough resources and proper planning. We’ll never overcome this loss unless we stop giving the vendors liberty to build as they wish,” said Njikho.

But as Gowelo and company go back to the drawing board in their marble boardrooms, Mzumara implores: “Let there be a lasting solution to these tragedies. Behind any business destroyed are people, including widows, orphans and the jobless earning a living from its proceeds.”

Their cries across the lengthy chain ought to offer city-planning officials human experiences of what not to do when rebuilding the market gutted twice in three months. Repeating familiar mistakes brings familiar tragic ends.