• Joyce Musuka (inset) was rescued from the jaws of death when she collapsed in the fire that reduced her house to rubble in Ndola’s Kansenshi residential area yesterday. Pictures by MOSES CHIMFWEMBE

By MOSES CHIMFWEMBE –
A RETIRED nursing services manager was yesterday rescued from a raging fire that reduced her house to rubble.
Joyce Musuka, who lives alone, was asleep when the fire started in her house, situated along Bombesheni Road in Ndola’s Kansenshi residential area.
The fire, believed to have been caused by an electric fault, started around 03:00 hours and destroyed property worth thousands of Kwacha and completely damaged the house.
An alert tenant and his wife, occupying the guest wing, ran to the rescue of their landlord after noticing plumes of smoke coming from the main house.
The tenants broke Ms Musuka’s bedroom window and managed to remove her from the house after she had collapsed and lost consciousness.
A check at the premises in the morning found the house reduced to rubble as sympathisers watched helplessly with nothing to salvage.
Valuables such as furniture, clothes, electronic items, books and jewellery were among goods turned into ashes.
Speaking from her hospital bed, Ms Musuka said she had survived the incident owing to divine intervention.
“It is only by the grace of God that I am still alive, otherwise I would have died in that inferno. I cannot remember how the fire started but it was around 03:00 hours and I would like to thank my boy (tenant) and his wife for their alertness and rescue efforts.
I am slowly recovering from the smoke I got choked with when the house was being burnt down,” a visibly shaken Ms Musuka explained.
Ms Musuka, who could not recall the extent of damage her house had suffered, said had the fire fighters arrived at the scene on time and not after 06:00 hours, the house would have been preserved from damage.