Pretoria - SVA Electronics, one of the biggest electronics manufacturing companies at Ga-Rankuwa Zone 14 industrial site, went up in flames on Sunday night.
Tshwane’s Emergency Services Department spokesperson Charles Mabaso said the fire at the factory was reported at approximately 6.37pm.
“Emergency Services arrived at the scene to find multiple plants or units of the factory on fire. Firefighters started fighting the blaze while also moving multiple bags and drums of flammable materials to safety,” Mabaso said.
He said two water tankers and an aerial ladder truck were dispatched to assist the two fire engines at the scene.
“Water tankers had to shuttle water to fight the blaze because of the absence of fire hydrants nearby,” he said.
Mabaso said about 20 units or plants of the factory had been burnt to ashes.
“Firefighters and factory workers had to move multiple 25kg bags of polypropylene and drums of methyl ethyl ketone to safety to avoid them catching fire. It has not been determined what other flammable and combustible chemicals were in the factory when approximately 20 units/plants of SVA Electronics were gutted by the blaze,” he said. The fire, he said, was subsequently extinguished and no one was injured.
The cost of the damage had not yet been determined and the cause of the fire was still under investigation.
Local councillor Violet Phalwane told the Pretoria News that the factory had been operating in the township for more than 20 years, and employed more than 700 people.
She said the company manufactured electronics such as washing machines, gas stoves, and Univa electric stoves, among other items, and was the biggest supplier to many furniture stores in the country.
“I am worried about unemployment. There is already a lack of jobs and my worry is that it will go up. I will have a meeting with the owners so that I can get a clear indication as to how many workers will be left jobless as a result of the fire,” she said.
Phalwane said SVA was the second company in one week to experience a fire after the other one was partly burnt last Tuesday.
“The first fire incident was started when one of the nyaope boys (drug addicts) set alight dry grass surrounding the industrial site.
“That fire escalated to one of the factories, and the owners there fought to extinguish it. It caught a storeroom where there were plastics and some dangerous chemicals.
“Luckily, it was put out and did not spread to other parts of the factory,” she said.
Regarding the SVA fire, she said: “I was told by the owners that there were three Chinese inside the factory when the fire started, and they all escaped unscathed.”
Pretoria News