Three in hospital, 90,000 litres of brandy saved, in KWV fire

Three people are in hospital following a fire that broke out at the KWV bottling plant in southern Paarl in the Western Cape on Tuesday morning, the company said.

"A KWV employee, a service provider and a municipal firefighter have been admitted to hospital for smoke inhalation and are in a stable condition," KWV said.

"Four KWV employees were treated on site for minor smoke inhalation."

Part of the company, where bottling was conducted, was damaged. 

"KWV’s capability to bottle certain brands will temporarily be impacted," the company said.

Drakenstein municipality spokesperson Riana Geldenhuys said the fire department and vehicles from the Cape Winelands district municipality and the Stellenbosch municipality had attended to the blaze. She said 48 firefighters, several officers and 14 firefighting vehicles were on the scene.

Firefighters had managed to prevent the flames from damaging tanks that store about 90,000 litres of brandy.

Machinery, office equipment and bottles on pallets had been damaged.

The cause of the fire was unknown.