The morning of July 26 turned into a nightmare for store owners as a part of the local shopping hot spot, Retail Park in North Rand Road, Bartlett, went up in flames.
“The fire started in Coricraft, and then jumped to other stores like Adidas, Tekkie Town and Jam,” said Eric Maloka, Ekurhuleni metro’s disaster and emergency services spokesperson.
The fire department battled the flames for hours, which started around 8am. The popular stores were left completely gutted.
“The cause of the fire is still unknown.” said Maloka.
Video By: Fanie Mthupha
At about 9.45am the fire seemed to be contained but the flames soon continued to spread through the roof and Tekkie Town and Jam started to burn.
Maloka said the fire-fighters had to enter some of the stores forcefully as keys were not available.
Maloka confirmed that there were no injuries or casualties reported at the time.
Many locals mulled around to catch a glimpse of the fire, while emergency services cordoned off the parking lot. Loud bangs and small explosions could clearly be heard coming from inside the severely damaged stores.
Pieces of the billboards and signage outside the stores were destroyed, while the roof covering the stores came down and fell in the parking lot.
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