Staff evacuated after fire in building
SCORES of people had to be evacuated due to a potential structural collapse when a Braamfontein office park building was engulfed in flames yesterday.
A section of the BraamPark office park, which houses FNB staff, was left gutted after a blaze engulfed the upper level of the building.
Johannesburg Emergency Services (JMS) confirmed that no one person had been injured during the evacuation process. JMS spokesperson Synok Matobako said they had received a call at 2pm yesterday, and found that a fivestorey building was on fire.
“The fire started at the top floor – the fifth floor – and it was well alight, while the roof had collapsed,” Matobako said.
“You can see on the right side of the building the whole top floor has collapsed, and we are a bit worried about a structural collapse, and that is why you see us moving cars away from the building, to make sure that if it collapses nobody will be affected,” he said.
“But I can confirm that nobody was injured.”
He said the structural damage caused by the blaze was concerning, but the damage could only be known after investigators had concluded their task.
Matobako said a search had been conducted to determine whether anyone was trapped in the building before the crew started fighting the fire, and investigations would commence to determine the cause of the fire.
“The fire was on at the time investigators arrived. The problem is that the fire happened on the top floor, which is not stable, so they will not be able to work until the site has been declared safe.
“We don’t want to put their lives in danger by sending them to the top floor, and they end up falling to the ground floor,” he said.
He did not put a time frame on when the investigations would be concluded.
A construction worker who was repairing the building’s roof said they had seen a smoke cloud emanating from the side of the building.
“Something which looked like an electric cable had flames on it, which led to a lot of smoke coming out of the building,” he said.
He asked not be named as he was not authorised to speak to the media.
He said a pair of his colleagues had attempted to assist him when they heard there was a fire.
“One of them climbed up with a bucket of water because he thought it was a small blaze, but he found that about 25 metres of the roof was on fire and a bucket was not going to help,” he said.
An employee who works on the top floor of the building said they were fortunate to have escaped with their lives.
She said mass chaos followed the discovery of the blaze.
“We first thought the smoke was because of the guys who were working on the roof, because there was dust before then,” she said.
“We then heard one of them saying it was a fire and that we needed to evacuate the building.”