By MAYA NTANDA –

A THREE-YEAR-OLD girl of Kitwe has died after the house she was sleeping in caught fire on Christmas Day.

The girl, of Mulenga Township, was left home in the company of two others while its parents went on a drinking spree on Wednesday night.
Acting Copperbelt Police Chief Joyce Kasosa confirmed the incident which happened around 22:30 hours and named the deceased as Josephine Ng’andwe.

Ms Kasosa said the couple went on a drinking spree and left their daughter in the company of two others.
She said the house caught fire after a candle was left burning.

“I have received a report of a couple of Mulenga Township that went drinking and left their three-year-old child with two others around 22:30 hours yesterday (Wednesday night). “The house they were sleeping in caught fire after a candle was left burning and the child sustained fatal burns,” she said.

Ms Kasosa said the body of the deceased was in the Kitwe Central Hospital (KCH) mortuary.

KCH acting public relations officer Chizongo Tembo confirmed receiving the body of the girl that was received as a brought-in-dead (BID) case.

Ms Tembo said the body was identified by relatives while the other patients, who were both under 16 years, were treated and discharged from hospital.

Meanwhile,three members of one family are nursing multiple burns at Chavuma Mission Hospital after their house was burnt to ashes yesterday.

The victims of Katela Village were identified as Ndala Zeka and his two children, Chisola and Elvis, aged 9 and 12, respectively.

Mr Zeka, who sustained burns on his face and arms, narrated that the fire that gutted his grass-thatched house was ignited by a candle that was left burning.

He told ZANIS that all the household goods worth about K6,000 and six by 50 kilogramme bags of maize were burnt to ashes.

Mr Zeka’s wife, Josephine Katunga, who escaped the inferno unhurt together with two other children, appealed to well-wishers to come to their aid as the family had become homeless.