Zesa employees injured in freak accident

Published: 21 June 2018

FOUR Zesa employees in Bulawayo escaped death by a whisker yesterday when a circuit breaker they were working on caught fire and severely burnt them.

The accident happened along a sanitary lane between Leopold Takawira and Lobengula Streets around midday.

Bulawayo chief fire officer, Richard Peterson confirmed the accident saying the four were rushed to Mater dei Hospital after sustaining serious burns.

"Our ambulance department attended the incident, where four Zesa employees got burnt whilst working on a circuit breaker in a sanitary lane.

"The four people who were injured are a 50-year-old male who sustained about 45% burns, a 27-year-old male who suffered about 9% superficial burns, a 53-year-old male with about 27% superficial burns and a 26-year-old female who sustained 2% burns, deeper burns which can be classified as second degree burns," he said.

Peterson suspected that the accident could have been caused by lack of precautionary measures by the employees.

"The accident could have been as a result of safety and health measures I am not sure whether the workers did follow all precautionary measures to be taken before, during and after such a job, so it is all about precautions", he said.

Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company general manager, Lovemore Chinaka said they were investigating the cause of the accident.

"Right now I am not in a position to say anything because our first priority is making sure that the injured get attended to, but an investigation is going on and we will have all the information in due course," he said.
- newsday

Tags: Zesa,