Arson in Pionierspark

THE Police are investigating an arson case after a house in Windhoek’s Pionierspark suburb was destroyed by fire yesterday.

The Fire Brigade was called to the house at the T-junction of Aschenborn and Tunschel streets at around 12h30, after backyard tenants had already spent more than 20 minutes trying to bring the blaze under control by themselves.One eyewitness reported seeing an unknown man leaving the yard before the smell of smoke alerted him to a burning living room.The elderly man, who lives in a back room of the house, said he noticed the front gate was open.When he went to close the gate, he saw a man he had never seen before leaving the premises.’He asked me where [the owner’s son] was and I said he was at school. He said ‘okay’ and left,’ the witness told The Namibian.He then smelled something strange and when he got to the side of the house, saw that a bed and a couch in the living room were engulfed in flames.Firefighters said by the time they arrived on the scene, the witness and others were trying unsuccessfully to bring the fire under control with a garden hose.The owner of the house only learned of the fire during the lunch hour.The fire appeared to have been started in the living and dining rooms – two areas that were completely destroyed.The intensity of the fire was such that part of the house’s roof caved in and paint peeled off the walls.The owners of the house asked not to be identified, and declined to comment.Members of the Fire Brigade said an investigation into the cause of the fire would be launched immediately, with witness statements and evidence gathered from the scene considered crucial in determining what had happened.