Business owners operating at the Footbridge Mall in Zimbabwe’s capital Harare are counting huge losses after a huge fire broke out last night and destroyed goods worth thousands of dollars.
The shopping mall, located at the corner of Julius Nyerere and Speke Avenue, opposite Joina City, went up in flames on Sunday night, January 28. Tenants watched in helplessness as their goods were painfully reduced to ashes.
Harare Fire Brigade swiftly intervened in containing the fire, but the hair salons, pharmacies, clothing stores and other retail businesses operating on two floors of the building were already considerably destroyed.
Harare Mayor Jacob Mafume who visited the scene of the incident, said the fire destroyed equipment and furniture on the two floors of the building before the fire service arrived.
“Unfortunately, equipment and furniture on two floors had burnt down. But they managed to contain the fire from spreading to other buildings,” Mayor Mafume said in a video on X.
Although the actual cause of the fire outbreak was not known, it was suspected to have been caused by faulty electricity.
