House burns to ashes

 

A house fire in Borolong village, a few kilometres from Francistown, has exposed the longstanding water crisis in the area, after a three-bedroom family home was reduced to ashes this past Sunday.

The blaze, which left nothing to salvage from the Mantsee, has devastated the family, leaving it in utter shock.

According to one of the siblings, Balisi Mantsee, the family still has no clear answers as to what sparked the blaze, but suspects it may have been triggered by an electrical fault, though they are still awaiting official confirmation.

“We do not have full facts on what exactly happened, but we think it could have been electricity issues,” Balisi told The Midweek Sun on Monday.

At the time of the incident, only the youngest sibling and her child were staying in the house, and fortunately, there were no casualties as they were not inside when the fire started.

The family’s parents passed away in 2018 and 2022, respectively, and the seven siblings, now living elsewhere, would often reunite at the Borolong home during holidays.

“That house was our meeting place. It was the glue that kept us together,” he said. However, what perhaps pains the family most is the lack of water in the village, a problem they say has persisted for many years.

When firefighters arrived from their station in Francistown approximately 20 kilometres away, they ran out of water while battling the flames.

The shortage forced them to fetch water from a nearby school, causing delays and by the time they returned, the fire had intensified, consuming the entire structure. It did not help that even what they got from the school was

still not enough.

A video circulating online captures helpless villagers watching the inferno; some ask what more could be done instead of just standing by, while others say it was pointless, as there was no water to use.