Fire Destroys 11 Vehicles, Floor of 3-storey Building
The fire that rocked Kennedy Avenue in Nadi on Thursday night has left 11 vehicles and a partially built three-storey building destroyed.
The building is the residence of Imaam Ali, the owner of Imaam Taxi Limited, which operates the Imaams Fiji Tours Transfer Charter. It also includes the office and garage. The company has a fleet of 30 vehicles.
Quick response by three firefighting crews helped contain the blaze from spreading to the adjacent buildings along the street. Company director Mansoor Ali said they had been living there for the past 55 years and the fire was heart-breaking.
The vehicles destroyed included two Coasters, a 15-seater and seven-seater vehicles, three hybrids, and four Mercedes. Four of the vehicles were not insured.
“Just because of COVID-19 we sent the drivers home and we had parked the vehicles inside. We managed to save seven vehicles by pulling them out, but 11 were gone,” he said.
The other vehicles were parked along the road in the vicinity at the time of the fire. He thanked the Police officers present on site for helping evacuate his father from the top floor. “Only four of us were living in the house. My father was on the third floor and he was not able to come down, but he was evacuated safely by Police officers who were present on site. They carried him on their backs, for which we are thankful,” he said.
He said the ground floor was destroyed, together with all the spare parts of the fleet including about 70 tyres.
National Fire Authority chief executive officer Puamau Sowane said the NFA was still trying to determine the cause of the fire and estimated cost of damage.
Earlier in the week, the NFA had raised concerns over the recent increase in the number of commercial fires.
Seeing a spike in commercial fire occurrences, the NFA is urging the public and business owners to start taking fire safety seriously. Thursday’s blaze in Nadi is the third commercial property that has been destroyed by fire in the past seven days.