Mattress factory burns to the ground in Tshwane

A mattress factory has been destroyed by a fire in Tshwane.

The city of Tshwane’s Emergency Services (TES) responded to the incident just after 1:30am on Wednesday morning, at the factory in Sunderland Ridge, Tshwane.

Tshwane Emergency Services spokesperson Charles Mabaso said the call centre dispatched resources from four fire stations after receiving multiple calls that the factory was engulfed by fire.

“Firefighters arrived on the scene and immediately performed exposure protection to nearby buildings and conducted forcible entry to gain access into the burning building for firefighting operations.

“Drums containing unspecified quantities of a chemical substance, Methylene Diphenyl Diisocyanate, were saved from the blaze,” Mabaso said

Injuries

Mabaso added that a fire officer was treated for minor to moderate injuries after slipping and falling during the firefighting operations.

“Three patients – one male, one female and a two-year-old child – were treated for smoke inhalation and transported to hospital in a stable condition. Three fire trucks, two fire ladder trucks and a water tanker helped to fight and contain the blaze.

“In total, three structures, three storage containers and a truck were destroyed by the blaze. The total cost of losses was not yet quantified when emergency services left the scene after extinguishing the fire,” Mabaso said.

Mabaso said the cause of the fire is still under investigation.

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Three perish in fire

Meanwhile, three people, including two children aged five and nine, died in a fire at a transit camp in Mamelodi.

The city of TES department said it responded to an incident before 2am on Wednesday where multiple informal dwellings were reported to be on fire at the camp in extension 18 in Tshwane

Mabaso said firefighters arrived on the scene to find an informal dwelling of about three rooms completely burned down.

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