WATCH: Fire breaks out at Wonderboom train station

A fire at Wonderboom train station in Pretoria destroyed five train carriages on Thursday afternoon.

Tshwane emergency services spokesperson Johan Pieterse said they reacted from their Wonderboom premises, which is only a few kilometres away, Rekord East reported.

Emergency services were on the scene soon after the fire was reported at about 16.45pm.

“The fire was reported by Prasa,” said Pieterse.

“We activated three other stations to assist ,and as we know there are water problems [in Wonderboom], we also arranged for a water tanker.”

Pieterse said four coaches were on fire when they arrived.

“We had to wait for an electricity certificate from Prasa as we cannot just fight electrical installations with water,” he said.

In that time, a fifth and sixth coach caught alight.

The train had nine coaches in total but emergency services managed to disconnect four.

Five burnt out completely but three were saved and one sustained some damage.

Pieterse said they managed to bring the fire under control in 30 minutes but stayed on the scene for several hours.

All the emergency services were there, including ambulances and police.

Police had to get involved in crowd control as a crowd of spectators had gathered.

The smoke and fire could be seen from miles away.

Pieterse said the cause of the fire was unclear

He said Prasa and the SAPS were investigating.