No-one hurt as building catches fire in central Durban

No-one was hurt after a building caught fire in Durban on Friday.

At least six rooms on two floors were affected at the Seaside building on the corner of Broad Street and Victoria Embankment.

eThekwini metro’s Central B division fire department said: “The fire was already well alight by the time we arrived. The roof was ablaze and several rooms had been affected, but we managed to contain the fire and saved some staff in other rooms,” said acting division commander Nqabakazi Nqoro.

She said they were yet to determine the cause and confirmed there were no injuries.

Tenants alleged that a stove had been left switched on in one of the rooms.

“It looks like the fire started in a kitchen on the second floor. Someone forgot to switch off their stove and went to work. It spread to some rooms on the first floor but the firefighters came in time to save others’ belongings. I can only hope that I’m one of the lucky ones,” said Ali Katimbe, a tenant.

Serge Mozard said his room was one of those affected and he was not sure what he would do.

“None of my belongings are insured because I’m a foreigner. I’m not sure if I’m even allowed to insure my stuff in South Africa. I really don’t know what I will do because this is not my fault, yet I’m made to suffer now,” he said.

“I don’t know what the building owner will say because it’s not fair for me to suffer for something that is not my fault. I don’t have money to replace everything, but before that I don’t even know what I will eat or where I will sleep tonight.”

Seaside owner Jimmy Buloko said he was not far from the building when he heard it was on fire.

“I was just down the road when I was told that the building was on fire, so we quickly rushed here. When we got inside they pointed us to a room they suspected that it was coming from, but it was locked and the fire was already too much so we couldn’t force the door down,” said Buloko.

He commended the quick response of the fire services department for making sure they stopped the fire before it spread, including to a Total garage next door.

“I think it was people from the next building [Gainsborough Court] who called the firefighters and they came as quickly as possible. They made sure that the damage did not spread further.”

Buloko said he would address the tenants later once “everything had settled”.

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