ENGULFED IN FLAMES
Vendors survey the damage to the Durban Herbal Market in Warwick Junction after it was ravaged by fire on Sunday night. The eThekwini Municipality said a forensic investigation would be conducted to determine the cause of the fire and it would close the market if it received a recommendation to do so.
THE eThekwini Municipality says that should a report on the Durban Herbal Market fire recommend that it be closed, the city will comply and shut down the facility.
City spokesperson Mandla Nsele said the decision would be informed by the findings of a forensic investigation being conducted to determine the cause of the fire, which tore through the traditional medicine market in Warwick Junction on Sunday night.
Durban Fire Division Commander Nkulumo Dube yesterday said they were called in at about 9.30pm and arrived to find the market already ablaze. The fire was so fierce that the flames could be seen in most high-lying areas around Durban, he said.
It took 15 firefighters in three fire engines about 20 minutes to contain the fire about half way through the market.
“To confine the fire took us about 20 minutes, but because most of the stuff is dry and most is vegetation, we had to damp down to get rid of the hotspots so the fire doesn’t flare up again. So it ended up taking us about an hour,” said Dube.
Nsele said the extent of the damage had yet to be determined, and only once this was done would any decisions about the future of the market be taken.
In the meantime, the city would identify an interim trading site for those who had lost their stalls.
According to city documents, the market was established in 1997, and had almost 300 stalls, kiosks and consulting rooms.
Virginia Hlengwa is among those who has been at the market since it was established. The uMlazi resident said she had not been able to come to the market when she was informed about the fire, but arrived this morning to find her stall unrecognisable among the burnt herbs and ashes.
“I could not sleep with worry, but I did not anticipate it would be this bad. My knees are shaking I can’t even stand up,” said Hlengwa.
She said she had been trading since before the municipality allocated them the stalls in the market.
“I may live from hand to mouth, but for more than 20 years I have lived and supported my family on the money I make here.”
Nonhlanhla Chiliza said she sold herbs, which are from the Eastern Cape and Umhlabuyalingana, north of KwaZulu-Natal, and other areas. Having recently restocked, she quantified her losses in the tens of thousands.
Lindiwe Ngcobo said there was such a sense of community at the market that they just covered their stalls with a tarpaulin when they went home without worrying about theft by other vendors.
Machemani Mbotho from the Eastern Cape had stashed a large sum of money in her stall, as she was afraid to travel home with the money or keep it in her Kennedy Road shack, because the informal settlement was prone to fires.
“On Saturday I received money from my stokvel, which I kept in my stall along with my Shoprite and Chester stamps, my funeral policy and other important documents,” she said.
Yesterday morning, Mbotho tried to identify her stall to see if she could salvage anything. Fortunately, she found her ID, which was intact.
She said she would continue to rummage through the rubble for whatever remained of her belongings.
She said she had also recently purchased a bunch of horse tails – amashoba – which were used by sangoma’s and were a rare commodity.
“I had not sold a single one because I had just added the beading,” she said.