With tears and looks of disbelief, employees and bystanders watched as Build-It in Utrecht Street went up in flames last week. Regardless of attempts by AbaQulusi Fire & Rescue fire-fighters and community members, the fiery blaze overwhelmed all efforts to put it out. At this stage, it is still unclear what the exact cause of the fire was, but speculations are that it might have been an electrical fault. The fire started at the back of the building where all the paint, wooden pallets and other chemical products are stored.
Reliable sources indicate that the AbaQulusi Fire & Rescue truck would definitely have made a difference in ‘saving’ the building and containing the fire faster. Apparently, the fire truck was in Johannesburg (for almost three weeks) for repairs and the back-up truck is also not working. The fire-fighters only had access to the department’s ‘bakkie sakkie’ and their safety gear. The fire truck arrived back in Vryheid on October 20. Transnet has a standing arrangement with the local Fire Department to assist with their fire truck during out-of-control fires, but unfortunately they attended to another fire and the truck broke down on its way back to Vryheid. This situation left community members and fire-fighters to use what was at their disposal.
On the day of the fire, several ‘bakkie sakkies’ had to be used together, with the two tractors from RF Gevers that had foam to extinguish the fire. This made the battle against the fierce fire extremely difficult, since the ‘bakkie sakkies’ didn’t have strong enough pressure pumps to reach the high flames. Zululand Municipality assisted with water trucks to fill up the ‘bakkie sakkies’ at the scene. The fire lasted for a couple of hours and during this time, the flat complex behind Build-It was in great danger of burning down if the fire could not be controlled and residents had to evacuate their houses. Fortunately, the relentless actions of community members ‘saved’ the complex and kept the flames at bay.
Once again, the community joined hands and worked together to fight like true heroes against the blazing flames.
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The news provided to you in this link comes to you from the editorial staff of the Vryheid Herald, a sold newspaper distributed in the Vryheid area.
