Harare, January 26, 2012-A Senior member of the Fire brigade who attended to the scene of the mysterious fire outbreak that killed the late Army chief Solomon Mujuru told a Harare Magistrate Walter Chikwanha, Wednesday at the ongoing inquest into the death of the former Army Boss that the fire might have been caused by arsonists.

“Most of the leads to the cause of the fire were already destroyed when we arrived at the scene, but what I witnessed were the crakes and peeling off of plasters of the bedroom and one of the dining rooms.

“From my experience these signs appear where the fire had emanated from and this was caused by either an arsonist or an electrical fault where people would have placed many plugs on one socket.
 
“I also want to say that the body of the deceased was not discovered in either of the two rooms where I think fire would have started from ,” a 27 year experienced Fire brigade Harare station Manager Clever Mafoti the first expert to testify in the inquest of the late retired Army General Solomon Mujuru told the court Wednesday.

Mafoti added that he failed to establish the real cause of the fire because most of the leads had already been destroyed by people who were trying to put out the fire.

When asked the reason why the fire brigade went to the scene without water Mafoti said they had no capacity to do so as their vehicle was having some leakage.

“Our fleet depleted in 2000 and since then we are incapacitated. We received the fire outbreak report at 0340hrs and arrived at the scene at 0503hrs, because we were not ready for the accident. Yes it’s our responsibility to cover all the areas in the country but we are incapacitated. Our car had some linkages the reason why we arrived there without water, “he explained.

A ZESA official is expected to give evidence Thursday.