Cape Town - The smell of fumes and sounds of sudden explosions awoke Maitland residents following a fire at a factory during the early hours of Sunday morning.
Concerned residents took to social media to enquire about the explosions and fire in Dapper Road and 15th Avenue, with some noting that the fire occurred soon after electricity was restored following load shedding from 12am to 2am.
Reports indicated that Lawson Tool Distributors was gutted.
City Fire and Rescue spokesperson Jermaine Carelse said more than 30 firefighters battled the blaze at the commercial building. Carelse said services were alerted to the fire at just after 2.30am yesterday.
“The first arriving officer from Epping Fire Station confirmed the building was well alight and called on additional resources, which included 10 firefighting appliances,” Carelse said.
“By 6.10am, firefighters managed to contain and extinguish the blaze that completely gutted the building.”
There were no reports of injuries and the cause of the fire is unknown.
Carelse said the department has seen an increase in fires at commercial buildings from December to date.
Police spokesperson Wesley Twigg said Kensington police attended the scene and that the cause of the fire is yet to be determined.
Kensington Community Policing Forum secretary Jameelah Liedeman said Lawson Tool Distributors’ owner was out of the country on Umrah (visit to Holy Ka’bah) but his brother who has an engineering company next door, came to the scene.
Liedeman said the business was closed for the holidays and was due to reopen on Wednesday.