The Fair Price furniture shop at the Pan Africa Mall was engulfed in flames early this morning and the Johannesburg Emergency Management Services (EMS) are still on the site dousing down the last remnants of the fire.

According to Nana Radebe of EMS, the fire started at about 4:45am when they received a call and emergency personnel rushed to the scene.

“We still don’t know what might have caused the fire and our EMS team is still on the site dousing down the remnants of the fire, and only then will they start investigations to piece together the likely cause of the fire,” she said.

Radebe was not in a position to say how much damage was caused by the fire to the store, save to say all that will be revealed as soon as preliminary investigations are complete in about an hour’s time.

Constable Matome Tlamela of Alex police confirmed they had been alerted to the fire but that no formal report had been lodged with her station.

The fire is said to have attracted a large crowd of onlookers, most of whom were on their way to their various workplaces.