By MOFFAT CHAZINGWA
FIRE yesterday swept through the Copperbelt Forestry Company (CFC) plant in Kitwe, destroying property worth millions of Kwacha and leaving the fate of around 700 employees in disarray.
CFC, which used to be called ZAFFICO before it was privitised in 2001, trades in timber products with two branches in Ndola and Kitwe, and has a total workforce of about 700 employees. Of these, 300 are stationed at the gutted plant.
The raging fire, which started on Thursday evening lasted until the morning hours of yesterday, and burnt three major sections of the company that included drying kilns for timber drying, the saw-milling plant stocking a range of saw milling machinery, and a warehouse with finished timber products.
Equipment and machinery comprising finger jointing, composer for gluing timber, gun-rip saw, sander cutter machine and bloom-stick making machine were gutted and reduced to rubble.
A check at the scene of the fire found several employees helplessly watching the remains of the factory while others led by their chief executive officer John Sichinga struggled to quench some spots of glowing flames in selected parts of the plant.
This was after a combined fire brigade team from Kitwe City Council (KCC), Mopani Copper Mines (MCM) and Copperbelt Energy Corporation (CEC), who had a long struggle lasting from midnight to 06:00 hours, tried to contain the inferno, had just left but without putting off the fire.
Mr Sichinga said in an interview that the fire ignited around 23:00 hours and at the time, there were only security guards around.