Fire erupts, destroys business in CBD
R35 000 worth of stock delivered just before the fire is now gone — business owner
A business fire caused a stir in the Randfontein CBD on Friday afternoon and had onlookers gathered in all their numbers.
The fire began at approximately 3pm, said owner Asim Ali. The cause of the fire is not known, however it has been speculated by Sajjad Bahtti, friend of Ali that it started as a result of an electrical short.
There were no injuries reported on scene but a provincial ambulance was on standby in case of emergency.
The fire was not visible to onlookers from the front side of the building – all they could see was smoke. On the back end of the building, flames could be seen leaking the outside of the building and shattering windows with it.
Fire fighters arrived and cut locks on the back side of the building to gain access to the shop with the Herald on their heels standing on a wall a few metres away from the blaze.
Steam and smoke formed as firemen put water to the flames. The door on the upper backside of the business had to be pried open by fire fighters and they were met with flames at the door.
Once opened, they managed to have sufficient room to begin putting the fire out.
Owner Ali was in Johannesurg at the time of the fire. “I was in Johannesburg when the fire started. My brothers were in the shop at the time.”
He explained the play-by-play of events before the fire to the Herald; “By 1.30pm we were at our prayers because it’s Friday. After prayers, we had two deliveries to the shop and we packed everything upstairs in the storeroom.
The alarm went off. I called the security company EPR to ask why it keeps going off and they said they would send somebody. After that, my brothers saw a little bit of smoke coming from upstairs.”
The fire is believed to have started upstairs; all the stock delivered to the shop was burned in the fire. Only stock in the downstairs section was salvageable and had to be packed in the street and on the pavement.
“R35 000 worth of stock delivered just before the fire is now gone,” Ali said.
When asked what he will do now considering the business having had trouble getting insurance Ali said, “I don’t know what I’m going to do now. We can only rely on God.”
According to Bahtti, “The fire trucks were here in time but it looks like the truck wasn’t working. It seems there was a problem with the water pressure. They had to call for another truck from Westonaria to help kill the fire.”
Traffic police were on scene, easing traffic flows in the CBD where the business burned. The Community Policing Forum (CPF) were managing the crowd and helped a great deal in keeping people out of the way of the incident.
“We as the CPF are here not to fight fires because we are not trained for that but we are here to control the crowd and make sure they keep out of the way of the scene,” Zaheer Gangat, chairperson for the CPF told the Herald on scene.
When the Herald passed the scene again at approximately 8pm, all the emergency vehicles had gone and the smoke with them.
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