Cars burnt in fire near zoo, but animals safe

A third car was slightly damaged in the same fire, which fire officers believed to be yet another bush fire.

The fire which began at about 1 pm started in a bamboo patch in the empty lot next to the zoo. The bamboo then fell onto the roadway where five cars were parked.

Appliances from the Belmont Fire Station and Headquarters responded to the fire and worked feverishly to contain it, as it had spread onto the hillside. Fire officers said they were still trying to ascertain the exact cause, but they suspected it was another bush fire as several bush fires were recorded yesterday.

Nigel Mc Mayo, whose silver wagon was destroyed said, he was in the zoo with his family when he heard there was a fire near where he had parked. Upon checking his vehicle, he saw that it was on fire.

He criticised the zoo because they did not have an alarm alerting people about the fire.

“They did not try to alert the people, for people to have time to save their car,” he said. Mc Mayo said his losses estimated to be $50,000.

One eyewitness, Jason McMillan said he was near where the fire started when he heard a cracking sound and then the bamboo caught afire.

He said he tried calling the police on their emergency number, 999, but got voice mail. He then called the emergency number for the fire services, 990, and also got an answering machine. McMillan said he finally tried directory assistance at 6411 where he got the number for the Belmont police station.

“I called them to let them know there was a fire, if it did not take that long those vehicles could have been saved,” he said.

The fallen bamboo caused problems to people higher up the hill who were stranded for hours until the fire officers cleared the roadway.

The regular joggers, getting ready to run up the hill were surprised to see the commotion taking place.

“I need to run today, I can’t believe this is happening, I hope they finish soon,” one jogger said.

Students of Fatima College and the British Academy said they helped to extinguish the fire. Imran Ali said he and his friends were at the zoo when they were told about the fire. He said when they ran outside they saw the fire had spread, then they ran up to Brian Lara’s home where they borrowed buckets from workmen and took water from the pool to extinguish the fire.

Assistant curator at the zoo, Richard Wallace assured the animals were not affected by the fire.

“We asked the zoo keepers to help the fire officers clear the bamboo to ensure that another fire does not occur,” he declared.