From the news: Water outages hit fire tenders, woes mount in Zimbabwe

From Associated Press, 27 January: Water outages hit fire tenders, woes mount in Zimbabwe

Harare - Fires caused by candles during Zimbabwe's frequent power outages have destroyed homes because firefighters have also been unable to find water, the state Sunday Mail reported. In one incident, in suburban northern Harare, a candle set curtains alight and an occupant tore down them down and threw them outside, onto drums being used to store gasoline. The house was gutted, with only a bed recovered from the ruins, the paper said. In the second, gasoline was being sold from a house occupied by four families in a western township and caught light when a candle was lit during an electricity cut, it said. All the occupants escaped without injury. House owner Sothini Chiravasa told the newspaper by the time fire tenders began drawing water from a neighbor's swimming pool the blaze was out of control. «How could they come to put out a fire without water?» she was quoted as saying. Zimbabwe is suffering daily power and water outages along with chronic shortages of gasoline that have forced many householders to store supplies in containers despite constant warnings by the fire department of the dangers. Amid the shortages, gas prices have soared, crippling public transport services and putting regular fares out of the reach of many workers, many of whom have resorted to walking to their jobs. ....