By Farai D Hove | The Zimbabwe Republic Police offices at the Southampton building in Bulawayo was yesterday gutted by an inferno that caused serious damage to the property.

This was caused by an electric fault, the state media reported.

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The building, also houses residential flats, and is located along Joshua Nkomo Street and 9th avenue.

The Bulawayo Fire Brigade managed to contain the fire before it spread to other flats and floors.

The state media says only three flats were affected by the inferno.

The state print, however failed to evaluate the property damage for risk assessment, a standard procedure in all journalism around all building-fire cases. Experts told ZimEye the building now requires safety assessments before people are allowed back in. 

“It will have to be demolished altogether,” engineer David Moyo said.  

Bulawayo fire department acting chief fire officer, Mr Linos Phiri said preliminary investigations revealed that the fire was caused by an electrical fault.

“For now, our investigations are pointing to an electrical fault but we will have a final report by Saturday,” he time the state media.