Hello Duncan, thanks for posting this interesting example. Sorry to hear about fire damage, it along with theft is something we all fear for our collections!
I have recently been examining a number of kaskara tangs, and this does very much look like a kaskara blade.
The short tang was inserted through a crossguard into a cylindrical grip and a pin used to hold it all together. This is of course not the strongest possible construction, but when well packed it is surprisingly strong.
Prior to these swords becoming valuable in their own right there was a time when people often transformed kaskara from their proper form to European types. I own a couple of these myself. Some of this might have been innocent thinking these were knightly swords, but often they were retrofitted to schiavonas and basket hilts (the blade dimensions being the same). The tang is the give away of course, but unless the sword is dismantled as in your case it can be hard to see.
Give aways for the kaskara are the slightly lozenge shaped tang with the hole in a flattened part and the uneven shoulders to the blade. This triple fuller with cresent moons is probably the most common kaskara blade type, and judging from your blade I'd say that is is an older one (it looks in the pictures to have a less flat profile than the later blades.
These blades were often (I believe) trade blades which were unmarked on arriving in Africa, but were then modified by the addition of the dukari and forming of the tang to fit the local swords. You will often find the identical blades in takouba which have a different tang (long and thin, peened over the guard). I would very much be interested in anyone knows of museum examples of these munitions quality blades since although general consensus seems to be Solingen, I have not seen any definite proof in terms of shipping records etc.. Plenty for higher end blades with makers marks, but these specific ones are more common and still a bit of mystery.
The picture is one of my kaskara, this one was one of those 'restored' as a knightly sword.
Best,
Chris
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