Six coaches of South Africa’s luxury Blue Train were damaged by fire at the Pretoria station on Tuesday night, Spoornet said. Representative Mike Asefovitz said on Wednesday the blaze appeared to have started in the kitchen.
The first flames were noticed about 10.30pm where the train was parked in a shed. It was to leave for Cape Town on Wednesday.
”Six coaches were damaged,” Asefovitz said.
The fire raged for almost two hours. Fire fighters from Tshwane emergency services brought the flames under control after midnight, representative Johan Pieterse said.
He said the interiors of three coaches were totally destroyed. Two more coaches suffered mostly smoke damage, while a third was only slightly damaged. ”No one was on the train when the fire broke out and no injuries were reported.” Asefovitz said the train would be out of commission until September.
”We have two sets of the Blue Train, and will have to reschedule our timetables to accommodate passengers. This should not be an insurmountable problem,” he said.
Spoornet engineers and other experts were on the scene to assess the damage.
Asefovitz could not confirm a police figure that the damage amounted to R30 million.
”At this stage it is impossible to put an amount to our losses because of the fire. We still have to determine to what extent the coaches can be salvaged.” Police and other experts were on Wednesday combing the ruins in an bid to determine the cause of the blaze, police representative Inspector Percy Morakane said.
Asefovitz said there were no indications of arson at this stage. – Sapa