Customers flee Umhlanga pizza smoke

The scent of freshly cooked pizza would usually draw you in‚ but when industrial extractors at The Pearls of Umhlanga failed on Friday‚ smoke from Doppio Zero’s pizza ovens had customers running out.

Smoke from the restaurant's pizza ovens is drawn from the restaurant and pumped into a 4th floor parking area where vents channel the smoke out of the building.

eThekwini Fire Department’s Jay Kanniapen told TimesLIVE that the extractor fans had malfunctioned‚ causing an evacuation from the plush hotel and mall on Umhlanga’s promenade.

“The issue is limited to this extractor room‚ which lies in the parking structure. The smoke is from the pizza ovens‚” he said.

Kanniapen added that technicians had recently worked on the extractors and had been called back to the hotel to examine the machinery.

The Umhlanga Urban Improvement Precinct posted the following message on their Facebook: “Smoke was seen coming out of the Pearls of Umhlanga building a short while ago. The fire department is currently on the scene and no fire has been detected. We have been advised that it was most likely smoke that was trapped within the vents and the situation is under control.”