Tshwane emergency services battle blaze at Unisa Winnie Madikizela-Mandela Building
“The cost of the damage has not been determined and the cause of the fire is unknown.”
The Tshwane Emergency Services Department (ESD) battled to put out a fire that broke out at the Winnie Madikizela-Mandela Building on Unisa’s Muckleneuk campus just before 01:00 in the morning of Wednesday, December 21.
The fire broke out on the second floor of the building.
Firefighters noticed dense smoke billowing from the building even before they arrived at the incident.
Tshwane ESD spokesperson Charles Mabaso said that firefighters had to force entry through three wooden doors and two steel roller doors to gain access to the building to fight the fire.
Security officers at the campus later assisted by opening other doors with their access cards.
“Firefighters managed to locate the seat of the fire inside the building after battling to open multiple doors and going through stacks of files, books and furniture,” said Mabaso.
“Firefighters found stacks of books and files that were smouldering in various places on the second floor and extinguished them.”
Mabaso said that most of the second-floor sustained water damage and parts of the third floor and the entire second floor suffered extensive smoke damage.
An aerial ladder apparatus was used to open windows while mechanical ventilation was used to rid the building of excessive smoke.
According to sources at the scene, a fire had broken out in the same building about two weeks ago and was extinguished by the staff. Mabaso said that emergency services were never notified about that incident.
Mabaso said that at this stage, the cost of the damage has not been determined and the cause of the fire was unknown.
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