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8 August 2024
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Fire breaks out at shoe manufacturing facility in Pietermaritzburg
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A fire broke out at a leather shoe manufacturing factory on Manchester Road in Pietermaritzburg on Saturday, 3 August 2024. CFO Essack Khan, chief fire officer, Msunduzi Fire and Rescue, said that the Emergency Control Centre (ECC) received the emergency call of a building alight at approximately 17h05. Msunduzi Fire and Rescue were immediately dispatched to the incident. The incident was received as building alight at Devine Shoes situated at 17 Manchester Road. One fire engine and bakkie sakkie were dispatched at 17h06. On arrival fire crews discovered that the fire had spread to other parts of the building and immediately tried to extinguish the fire but unfortunately ran out of water.
Further response included: 1 x major pumper, 1x medium pumper (District Fire), 1x bakkie sakkie (14 crew consisting of 2x station commanders 12 firefighters (including driver/pump operator), 1 x airport tender (also used as a water carrier (9 000litres of water) 2 crew/operator; 1 x rapid response vehicle (RRV) used as command vehicle (1 divisional commander, 1x firefighter) with a total crew compliment of 18 (initial).
Timeline
Time of call: 17h05
Time of dispatch: 17h06
Time of attendance: 17h17 first fire tender and bakkie sakkie
17h28 Second fire tender
17h55 Airport fire engine
Chief Khan said that the following challenges were faced: “Fire hydrants were not working at scene, fire engines ran out of water and had to source form 200 metres away thereby disconnecting and having to refill away from incident. This hampered our operations as our fire engines need a good supply of water to extinguish all types of fires. The buildings were built very close to each other, which in turn helped the rapid spread of fire coupled by the high fire load within these buildings. These type of buildings, one being a shoe factory where large quantities of spirits and glues are found caused the fire to spread very rapidly in the early stages. By this time, due to the high wind conditions and this rapid spread of fire to adjacent buildings, it became impossible to stop the fire by aggressive interior firefighting but rather the fire crews had to resort to defensive tactics by restricting the fire spread to other building not yet involved in fire.”
“As we progressed trying to extinguish the fire, additional resources were made available with the District Fire Services with 2x fire engines and at least 10 firefighters’” added Chief Khan.
“The incident is still under investigation. Injuries included one Yellow Code (slight steam burns).”
Conclusion
“Firefighters worked throughout the night to extinguish the fire completely and was concluded on the night of Sunday, 4 August 2024 at approximately 22h21. It must be emphasised that this fire was a very challenging incident and under the circumstances, our firefighters performed well and tried their utmost to extinguish the fire as soon as possible without any loss of life and serious injuries. Furthermore with the assistance of our District Fire, we were able to accomplish what we set out to do and that is to extinguish the fire,” concluded Chief Khan.
Source: CFO Essack Khan, chief fire officer, Msunduzi Fire and Rescue
Further response included: 1 x major pumper, 1x medium pumper (District Fire), 1x bakkie sakkie (14 crew consisting of 2x station commanders 12 firefighters (including driver/pump operator), 1 x airport tender (also used as a water carrier (9 000litres of water) 2 crew/operator; 1 x rapid response vehicle (RRV) used as command vehicle (1 divisional commander, 1x firefighter) with a total crew compliment of 18 (initial).
Timeline
Time of call: 17h05
Time of dispatch: 17h06
Time of attendance: 17h17 first fire tender and bakkie sakkie
17h28 Second fire tender
17h55 Airport fire engine
Chief Khan said that the following challenges were faced: “Fire hydrants were not working at scene, fire engines ran out of water and had to source form 200 metres away thereby disconnecting and having to refill away from incident. This hampered our operations as our fire engines need a good supply of water to extinguish all types of fires. The buildings were built very close to each other, which in turn helped the rapid spread of fire coupled by the high fire load within these buildings. These type of buildings, one being a shoe factory where large quantities of spirits and glues are found caused the fire to spread very rapidly in the early stages. By this time, due to the high wind conditions and this rapid spread of fire to adjacent buildings, it became impossible to stop the fire by aggressive interior firefighting but rather the fire crews had to resort to defensive tactics by restricting the fire spread to other building not yet involved in fire.”
“As we progressed trying to extinguish the fire, additional resources were made available with the District Fire Services with 2x fire engines and at least 10 firefighters’” added Chief Khan.
“The incident is still under investigation. Injuries included one Yellow Code (slight steam burns).”
Conclusion
“Firefighters worked throughout the night to extinguish the fire completely and was concluded on the night of Sunday, 4 August 2024 at approximately 22h21. It must be emphasised that this fire was a very challenging incident and under the circumstances, our firefighters performed well and tried their utmost to extinguish the fire as soon as possible without any loss of life and serious injuries. Furthermore with the assistance of our District Fire, we were able to accomplish what we set out to do and that is to extinguish the fire,” concluded Chief Khan.
Source: CFO Essack Khan, chief fire officer, Msunduzi Fire and Rescue