A firefighter was injured in a blaze that gutted the head office of Caxton Publishing in Craighall, Johannesburg, on Thursday night.
Although only slightly burnt, the unnamed firefighter was taken to hospital for treatment, said a rescue worker on the scene.
The two-storey building was completely destroyed in the blaze, said Johannesburg Fire and Emergency Management Services spokesperson Malcolm Midgley.
It is not known what time the fire started, but it was already raging by the time firefighting crews arrived at the scene at 9.30pm.
”The whole roof has gone,” said Midgley. The building next door is also smoke-logged and inaccessible.
”It’s a major fire in terms of the structural damage, the financial loss and the number of fire trucks here — six,” he said. ”All you see inside is burnt-out computers.”
Northern Johannesburg community papers manager Karen Geurtse was attending the Sanlam Awards for the community press in Sandton when security called to alert her to the fire.
”It was my office that burnt down,” Geurtse, who raced to the scene in her evening dress, told reporters.
She did not know what started the fire and could not conform that there had been a big bang before the building burst into flames.
The building housed the offices of seven community newspapers.
”At this stage, we are worried about getting the papers out.”
The newspapers affected are the Randburg Sun, Sandton Chronicle, Fourways Review and the Midrand Reporter.
”We might lose fine detail, but we will be able to save the majority of them,” Geurtse said.
The Rosebank Gazette, North East Tribune, Northcliff-Melville Times and Auto Dealer were already at the printers, said Caxton chief executive Bruce Sturgeon. — Sapa