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Roof fire delays court business
2007-03-08 09:30:57
By Issa Yussuf, Zanzibar
Business at the Zanzibar High Court was delayed for some two hours on Tuesday following a dawn fire on the court building roof that disrupted power supply in the area.
Zanzibar Deputy High Court Registrar Yesaya Kayange confirmed the incident, saying it caused panic among judiciary staff, visitors and passers-by.
He said court staff managed to put out the fire before it caused much damage, noting that only part of the roof was burnt.
He said although they were yet to establish the cause of the fire, they suspected it was an electrical fault.
One of the clerks at the court who preferred anonymity but swore that he witnessed the incident said that he detected the fire when he opened the door to the court.
`I tried to call fire fighters but got no response.
Fortunately, we soon managed to control the fire using water.
It was hard because our courts are not supplied or fitted with firefighting equipment for emergencies,` he explained.
The clerk said the entire power supply system in the court was destroyed.
`By the look of things, it may take up to two weeks to repair the system. This will adversely affect the court’s activities,` he pointed out.
Efforts to get more details on the incident from the police and fire fighters failed yesterday.
However, there have appeals for quite some time now that the Fire Brigade in the Isles is not adequately staffed and equipped and should be modernised.
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