Blaze rocks bank
2008-04-17
Lise Beyers
ANOTHER business in Paarl has been rocked by a fire. The fire broke out on the third floor of Nedbank’s office building in Breda Street shortly before 07:00 on Sunday morning. Thanks to stringent safety measures in place, the fire brigade was notified quickly and their rapid response led to the fire being extinguished before it could spread to the rest of the building. A spokesperson for Nedbank, Gerhard Laubscher, said that that the building’s Business Continuity Plan was activated immediately and the Emergency Management Team was on site at 07:30 to start assessing the damage and impact to staff and systems. Various offices on the third floor were damaged, including office equipment and desktop computers. But on Monday morning business went on uninterrupted, although a few staff accomodation and technology adjustments had to be made. “We have accommodated all the personnel who have been affected in other offices and are currently in the process of cleaning up the water and smoke damage. A full assessment of the damage and cause of the blaze will be done “Almost everything is up and running and none of our communication or data systems were damaged and their is no impact at all to clients.” This fire follows close on the heels of the devastating fire which destroyed the business Polarama two weeks ago, leaving a huge gap in the wholesale market of Paarl East. A spokesperson for the fire department said that although the exact cause of these fires have not yet been determined, it is possible that they were caused by electrical faults. During these times of load-shedding, the public is warned to switch off all electrical appliances at the wall sockets. When the power goes off and then comes on again, this causes power surges which can lead to electrical faults, causing a fire.
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