/ 7 March 2007

Factory workers battle fire in Jo’burg

Shocked workers at a furniture factory desperately battled a fire in a four-storey building in central Johannesburg on Wednesday before they were forced to flee the building.

Emergency services rushed to the scene and firefighters spent about 45 minutes getting the fire under control.

Nobody was reported injured.

Johannesburg emergency services divisional commander Malcolm Midgley said the owner of the building could face a fine of R1 500 for contravening city by-laws.

”The firefighters discovered that the sprinkler system was disconnected and this contravened the municipality’s by-laws.”

Midgley said the building, on Meikle Street in the City and Suburban industrial area, caught fire at about noon.

Six fire engines and four ambulances rushed to help.

Midgley said the cause of the fire was unknown, but he suspected that ”bad housekeeping” may have been to blame.

He said in factories where wood was used, dust and pieces of wood usually lay around and sparks from one of the machines could easily start a fire.

Factory employees did not know the cause of the fire.

One of the employees, who refused to give his name, said he was on the second floor when the fire broke out.

”We heard screams that there was fire on the fourth floor. We quickly ran outside,” said the man.

He said the fourth floor was used as a foam-rubber storeroom.

Another factory worker said that he and his other co-workers were returning from lunch when they saw smoke coming out of the windows.

”We ran inside and tried to extinguish the fire using water pipes, but the flames were too big because of the foam rubber that was stored there,” said the man, who looked exhausted.

He did not know what might have caused the fire because no one worked on the fourth floor.

”No one was there when the fire started.”

A small crowd of onlookers watched as smoke billowed out of the fourth floor of the building.

Meikle Street is between Goud and End streets. — Sapa