THE authorities are investigating the cause of a fire that broke out at a Westmead company, Borage Trading, on Sunday night. Owner of the company, Mano Chetty, said he is still very puzzled about the fire, which destroyed everything.
Borage Trading is a factory in Alexander Road that deals with textile laminating.
Chetty said he received a phone call at around 8pm from a security company, informing him that the alarm had gone off in all four zones of the premises.
“We rushed into the factory and there was smoke everywhere, and then we saw the blaze. Within an hour, everything was burnt.” He said, although they are still not sure about the amount of damage, they consider it to be around R10-million worth.
“This fire has affected us very badly. We can not continue with production and we have to try and look elsewhere to keep our customers satisfied. It might take three months to get back on our feet and it is so unfortunate that our staff will now be without work while we fix the damage.”
One of the business owners in Alexander Road, Alan Bissett, said it was a very scary fire and they also fear that there is not enough water in the Westmead area in the event of having to douse a fire.
“The firefighters had a really tough time putting out the fire as most hydrants were empty. I really believe that some of the things could have been saved and the firefighters could have contained the fire if there was enough water.”
Bissett said authorities need to look at solving the water problem because businesses are all at a huge risk.
