Three months on, parliament full of mosquitoes, 'lethal' gas, melted metal and 30mm cracks

“Nothing destroys like fire. That beautiful building, it's all gone.”

These were the shocked words of a senior ANC MP on Friday after engineers presented their initial assessment of damage caused by the fire at parliament in Cape Town that broke out on January 2.

Peace Mabe, co-chair of the joint standing committee on financial management of parliament was reacting to a presentation by Christo Beukes, the programme manager.

Beukes works for the Coega Development Corporation, which has been appointed by the public works and infrastructure department to assess the fire damage and develop a renovation plan.

In his presentation Beukes revealed that:

• There is “severe structural damage to the central concrete structure of the National Assembly from the 2nd floor to the 6th floor;
• The temperature in the National Assembly entrance lobby reached an estimated 900ºC. Metal ducting and copper wiring melted;
• Heat generated when the massive wooden speaker's podium went up in flames caused “extremely significant damage” to the concrete floor above it;
• Floors sagged by as much as 70mm as concrete slabs crumbled, and walls were left with cracks of about 30mm;
• More than six weeks after the fire, the lower basement was found to be flooded to a depth of more than 1.7m with an estimated 4.2-million litres of water. “Huge breeding of mosquitoes” took place in the water; and 
• There are fears that a rotten-egg smell through the new assembly building is caused by highly flammable hydrogen sulphide. 

Public works minister Patricia de Lille said the Coega team, which started work on February 15, has operated in “difficult and dangerous circumstances”.

Beukes said damaged areas had been allocated green, amber and red designations, depending on how dangerous they were. 

Red zones had been taped off in a way which allowed Hawks officers investigating the fire to enter with sniffer dogs on leashes, accompanied by Coega engineers.

With the damage assessment complete, apart from in the flooded basement, Beukes said the next priority was to make the building safe. 

In the Old Assembly, where damage was less severe, this would involve removing debris from the destroyed roof so it did not blow off, constructing a temporary roof covering and stabilising walls.

“Old Assembly unaffected lower floors may be reoccupied after addressing smoke and water damage and restoring the building services,” said Beukes.

In the New Assembly, which was handed over to the public works department on Tuesday after the Hawks completed their investigation, a pumping operation in the basement is making good progress.

An initial attempt to remove the water in 10,000-litre tankers was abandoned for reasons of cost and time.

After testing the contaminated water — a combination of firefighting water and groundwater — the City of Cape Town issued a permit for it to be pumped into its sewer system.

Beukes said pumping started on Tuesday and was being conducted between 6pm and 6am and at a rate which did not overwhelm the sewer system. 

Public works acting director-general Imtiaz Fazel said the water level had already fallen by 1-metre and pumping should be completed by early next week. A groundwater-removal pump would then have to be reinstated.

Once the basement is accessible, Beukes said the smell of gas would be investigated and remedied, and debris would be removed from the destroyed roof. A 1.8-metre security hoarding is to be built around the National Assembly.

Coega's next job is to produce a detailed assessment of the damage, which will cover the residual strength of the structure of the uninsured buildings as well as proposals and cost estimates for repairs.

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