A security guard on duty during a factory fire on Royston Road near Sobantu in Pietermaritzburg has described how a man trapped inside the burning building managed to escape through a window as emergency teams rushed to the scene.

The Witness reports that the fire broke out at a nappy and polystyrene manufacturing factory last night, prompting a major combined emergency response.

Khangelani Mtonanane, a security guard on duty at the time, explained how he discovered the fire.

“I saw the smoke and walked around, then I saw the fire,” he said.

Mtonanane said a bystander alerted him that someone was trapped inside the building.

“I saw a client who told me there was a person inside, and they needed a crowbar to open. The man who was inside came out through the window. He had cuts on his hand because he broke the window to get out,” he said.

He then warned workers at a nearby cake factory to evacuate.

“I told the people who were working in the cake factory about the fire to get out. Whoever was here began breaking car windows and moved cars that were in the way,” said Mtonanane.

Msunduzi deputy chief fire officer Shaheen Ballim earlier said the fire is suspected to have started inside the nappy factory.

The blaze is believed to have broken out at about 18:45, with the fire department notified at 19:14.

Firefighters from Msunduzi, uMgungundlovu, Howick, Ashburton and New Hanover, supported by private emergency services, worked to contain the blaze and prevent it from spreading to the surrounding industrial complex, which houses significant gas and combustible supplies.

About 35 firefighters were involved.

No injuries or fatalities had been reported, and the cause of the fire remains under investigation.

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