El Paso burns to ashes

Flames engulfed El Paso Nightclub this past weekend, burning it down to a meagre brick skeleton.
Between the ashes and debris 20 years of entertainment history is buried.

“This is still so unreal,” Mr Jo Viljoen, former owner of the popular establishment said.

Viljoen said the fire started on the outside on top of the thatch roof and quickly spread ‘swallowing’ the whole nightclub. This happened on Saturday, October 1 at around 14:00.

“Two cleaners came out running after someone screamed that the roof is on fire,” Viljoen said

Mr Namanu Madjid from the bottle store adjacent to the nightclub, said eight fire extinguishers were not enough the put the fire out.

“We tried our best to put out the flames, but it was just too much. I am disappointed in the police and fire brigade. I phoned them and they did not come out on time. The fire brigade took so long, by the time they arrived there was nothing they could do to safe the building,” Madjid said.

Mr Jo Viljoen standing in front of what use to be El Paso Nightclub.

A very well-known and much loved car guard in eMalahleni lost all his belongings in the fire. That room was what he called home for the past five years.

Mr Gertjie Jansen van Vuuren was asleep in the bedroom which is next to the nightclub when the tragedy struck.

“The smoke was all over I could not breathe. When I woke up neighbours were banging on my door, shouting and screaming that my room was on fire,” Jansen van Vuuren said.

Tears rolled down his cheek when he said his cat died in the fire.

“I had Katte for three years. Katte was my companion and my friend.”

He said his livelihood was turned into nothing within four minutes.
The staff from Hoëveld Vleismark earlier this week told WITBANK NEWS that it is through God’s grace that their butchery was out of harm’s way.

“This is terrible. We came in on Sunday and aired the butchery and cleaned up,” Mr Louis Koekemoer from the butchery said.

Viljoen looked at the rubble and memories flooded his mind,

”We started building El Paso in 1996. I sat on my knees many a night tiling and plastering.”

Viljoen and his brother, Peet opened the nightclub the following year.

“We anticipated to host around 60 people here a night then we would break even. But people loved El Paso. Some nights we had up to 600 and more people dancing and enjoying the evening.”

El Paso Nightclub burned down on Saturday, October 1.

If the microphone could playback music from artists whose footprints are embedded in the nightclub you would hear the voices of Alan Ladd, Bles Bridges, Patricia Lewis, Mike Schutte and Caroline du Preez to name but a few.
The stage went silent 10 years ago when the Viljoen-brothers decided to rent the nightclub out.

“The industry is hard; it takes its toll with late nights and early mornings. We decided to shout halt and gave someone else a chance to carry on with El Paso’s legacy,” Viljoen said.

The question if El Paso will ever be rebuilt, had Viljoen silent for a few seconds,

“Maybe…. one day. There are a lot of decisions we now have to make. For now we are taking it one step at a time.”

WITBANK NEWS took video footage at the burning building and on the footage one can clearly see water spurting out from underneath both the fire department’s vehicles.

“There was more water underneath the fire department’s vehicles than in the hose they used to try and put out the last flames,” Viljoen backed the video footage up.

Efforts to find out if the allegations made by Madjid that the fire department took some time to get to the scene were fruitless as the local municipality did not answer on questions sent to them in this regard.

Jansen van Vuuren has nothing left. He was given clothes and some food. He still needs a cupboard for his clothes and more food to see him through the month.

If anyone wants to donate food or a cupboard they can contact Zita Goldswain on 013 656 2490 and arrangements will be made.

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