Durban — It took firefighters 15 minutes to extinguish a fire that had spread on a floor in a historical building in the Durban city centre on Wednesday.
In the late morning, the 320 building situated on Pixley kaSeme (West) Street had smoke billowing out of it, prompting the eThekwini Fire Department to respond.
Acting division commander Nqabakazi Nqoro said they received a call at 10.47am reporting that the sixth floor of the building (320 Pixley kaSeme Street) was on fire.
Nqoro said the first fire engine arrived at the scene at 10.54am.
She said the affected offices (training and skills) were an open space with partitions and four were affected.
Nqoro said they had three fire engines at the scene but once they made it up the stairs with their hoses, they were quick to extinguish the fire.
“There was a lot of smoke,” she said.
“But the extinguishing was quick, about 15 minutes.
“There were some smoke inhalation casualties, eight people were taken by ambulance,” Nqoro said.
She said what caused the fire to spread were papers; the office had a lot of papers.
Speaking on the rest of the building, Nqoro said the other floors continued operating but the sixth floor was closed.
Estimating the cost of the damages, Nqoro said the structure could cost about R100 000 while the offices would cost between R60 000 and R80 000.
In December 2016, the 25th floor of the building caught fire.
Daily News