No health impacts from Jacobs fire, says Ethekwini

NO health impacts were reported to Ethekwini Municipality following yesterday morning’s (Thursday, 29 August) Jacobs fire.
Ethekwini Municipality’s deputy head of communications, Mandla Nsele said there were no health issues reported which emanated from the smoke.

The city was notified of the fire at Jini Trading, a shoe factory in Jacobs at 4.46am and its first fire engine was in attendance at 4.55am. They found the entire top floor of a double storey building well alight, with flames bursting through the roof.

READ: Huge cloud plume over Amanzimtoti signals fire in South Durban
“The factory manufactures shoes and bales of leather, rubber and plastic were alight, emitting intense heat and thick black smoke. The fire was contained on the top floor and firefighters prevented fire spread to the rest of the premises. The factory was in operation when the fire occurred, about 20 employees were on site and escaped unharmed,”said Nsele.

READ: Durban South fire source confirmed
The fire department used four fire engines, a foam tender, water tanker, an incident command vehicle, five fire officers and 17 firefighters to douse the blaze.

While the fire was brought under control at about 7am, firefighters stayed on to damp down hotspots.
The fire’s cause is undetermined and a report will be compiled by the relevant city departments which attended the scene.
While the extent of the damage is still being assessed, the entire building collapsed on itself, reducing it to a pile of smouldering debris.

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