Preliminary findings conducted by Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (ESCOM) on the fire that gutted down Dreamfoam Shop on Tuesday afternoon have revealed that the fire started due to meter bypass by shop owners.
Dreamfoam shop is situated along Haile Selassie road next to basement in the commercial capital Blantyre.
According some well-wishers mainly minibus touts managed to rescue some of the mattresses while others took advantage of the situations by looting the shop.
ESCOM officials were called in to investigate the possible cause of the fire and preliminary findings have revealed that there was meter bypass.
“Preliminary findings by ESCOM Engineers revealed that the supply system to the shop had been tampered with by using numerous jumpers to tap electricity from different ends.
“Meter tampering or bypass is an offense punishable by law as stipulated in the Electricity Act no 22 of 2004 Section 45(2b). ESCOM is yet to mete out appropriate penalties upon conclusion of the investigations,” reads in part the statement posted on ESCOM facebook page.
Recently the country has experienced a sharp increase in fire accidents and many have attributed the cause to ESCOM.
