On Thursday, Jean-Marc Yav, Chief Executive Officer for the Language Training and Consultancy Solutions was forced to cancel his trip to Democratic Republic of Congo, following fire that broke out at his workplace in Lilongwe.
Yav had all traveling arrangements in place and had started off to Kamuzu International Airport, only to receive a call to return back to office due to the inferno.
His office is one amongst many that have suffered losses in Lingadzi House, which is located at City Centre, as a blaze broke out in the two storey building.
“We were supposed to leave this afternoon for a 10-days meeting in Congo, but on our way to airport, that’s when we received the call telling that there is fire in the office”, he said
He went on to say, “there were sound systems, tables, boxes of equipment. We also had 200 cables for universal wireless translator which are very expensive, we bought each wire at USD360 and here in Malawi you can only find it at Parliament, ministry of information and here” he said.
According to Yav, the approximate amount of the equipment in his office before the incident happened was K850, 000,000 (490,000 USD).
Asked about any information on the source of the fire, he said “I was told that the fire started in restaurant on the ground floor and moved up to the second floor where it spread into our neighboring office, the UNDSS before entering our office”.
Meanwhile, Yav expressed disappointment with the delay of firefighters who took about an hour before their arrival at the scene.
Apart from offices, the Lingadzi Building also has stores on the ground floor, but they have not been affected by the fire.
