A fire broke out at the University of South Africa’s (Unisa) Muckleneuk campus in Pretoria on Tuesday night, destroying parts of the Winnie Madikizela-Mandela building.
The City of Tshwane Emergency Services Department responded to the incident at approximately 00:59am.
Thabo Mabaso, City of Tshwane emergency service department spokesperson said the fire broke out at about 1am. He said the cause of the fire has not been determined yet.
Mabaso said firefighting personnel dispatched to the incident noticed dense smoke coming from the building before they arrived at the scene.
Firefighters had to force entry through three wooden doors and two steal roller doors to fight the blaze.
“Security officers at campus later assisted by opening other doors. Firefighters managed to locate the seat of the fire after battling to open multiple doors and going through stacks of files, books and furniture. Firefighters found stacks of books and files smouldering in different places on the second floor and extinguished them,” said Mabaso.
The firefighters used an areal ladder to open windows and conduct a mechanical ventilation to rid the building of excessive smoke. Mabaso said the flames were dosed within two hours.
According to Mabaso, a source at the scene claimed that a fire broke out at the same building two weeks ago, but said it was extinguished by staff. Emergency services were not notified about the incident.
Meanwhile, Unisa confirmed the incident. Edgar Rathelele, the Unisa media liaison said relevant teams from the university protection and facilities management, in the company of Vice Chancellor Puleng Lenka Bula, responded swiftly to the fire and managed to contain it on time.
“A portion of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela building at the Muckleneuk Campus caught fire in the early hours of this morning (December 21st, 2022). Relevant teams from Unisa’s Protection Services and Facilities Management, joined by the principal and Vice Chancellor, Professor Lenka Bula, responded and were on the scene swiftly,” he said.
Rathelele said at the moment they do not know what cased the fire, adding that investigations are underway to determine the cause.
Source: Times Live, News24, IOL, Eyewitness News, The Citizen, image from Twitter: @Abramjee