The Southern Eye newspaper in Zimbabwe reports that a fire on Sunday night destroyed a B2B warehouse destroying impounded goods worth thousands of dollars at the Beitbridge border.

The fire is believed to have been caused by an electrical fault and according to reports on Sunday thousands of travellers were stranded as immigration officials deserted their offices for safety.

The fire, which started around 6pm and was still raging out of control at about 8pm, sources told the newspaper that there were no water hydrants at the border.

“The Civil Protection Unit is ill equipped to deal with fire as hydrants at the border don’t have running water,” a source said.

Reports say South Africa initially refused to assist claiming they were forced to pay toll fees the last time they came to put out a fire at Beitbridge.

South African firefighters, however, finally arrived later to help put out the fire.