Zambia: A house fire has claimed the life of a two-year seven-month-old child of Copperbelt province. The toddler was sleeping when the house caught fire and the victim could not get out of the house in time.
Copperbelt Police Commanding Officer Peacewell Mweemba identified the deceased victim as Joshas Banda. He also shared the home address and neighbourhood where the accident happened in Chibuluma compound .
According to the investigating officers, the incident took place yesterday around 11:30 hours. Initially, the deceased was in the seating room watching television with his grandfather and later fell asleep in the room itself.
He was later taken to the bedroom where he continued sleeping and the grandfather went back to the seating room to watch television.
Commanding officer Mweemba explained that while the elder was watching television, he noticed some smoke coming out from one of the bedrooms. He rushed to check what was happening and found that the ZESCO meter box was on fire.
The grandfather claimed that he saw that the fire was spreading to other rooms. Thus, he rushed to the room where the grandson was sleeping and did not find him.
At this time, the grandfather assumed that the toddler had woken up and left the house due to the fast spreading of the fire. However, this was not the case as the victim was left in the house.
Further, Mweemba said the man then went outside the house with other family members to report the matter. They informed via phone call to Kalulushi Municipal Council fire brigade officers, who managed to quench the fire.
After the fire calmed, the police entered the house to ascertain the damage. They found the body of the deceased with fire burns on his head facing downwards. Meanwhile, the brain was exposed. He added that all the property in the house was burnt to ashes.
The body of the deceased is currently lying at Kalulushi General hospital mortuary awaiting post-mortem.