Big fire destroys JBay warehouse

Updated 3 pm

Updated at 9.10 am

By Bev Mortimer

A huge fire consumed a big warehouse in Da Ga Road in the vicinity of Billabong Village last night, 28 June.

Firemen were unable to contain the blaze that was out of control and the entire building was destroyed.

The G4S security guard in the building pressed his panic button and at the same time the fire alarm went off and this alerted response.

According to Carl Trahms of Smhart Security the whole inside was burning around midnight. “Fire engines were quick to arrive but it was out of control. They managed to save the surrounding buildings.”

Trahms added that Smhart also contacted the fire department.

And at nearly 2 am firemen were still at the scene trying to extinguish the blaze.

A Billabong statement received this afternoon stated: “Early this morning our Billabong warehouse in JBay caught fire and was badly damaged. Thankfully all our staff are 100% safe and nobody was injured.

“The cause of the fire and extent of the warehouse damage is unknown at this stage. All areas other than our warehouse are unaffected and its business as usual while we are working on normalizing the affected portion of our business as soon as possible.”

Kouga Municipality issued a release at 8.30 this am that said the Kouga Fire Department was alerted about 12:25 am. that the Billabong warehouse in Da Gamma road was on fire. Yje fore brigade reacted immediately and on arrival, the whole warehouse building had already caught light.

All vehicles from Jeffreys Bay, St Francis Bay, Humansdorp and Hankey – where we have fire stations – were called to the scene and we had two vehicles that we requested from the Nelson Mandela Metro Municipality on standby.

“Our firefighters fought to contain the fire and managed to save nearby shops and the nearby municipal sewer plant. The fire was extinguished at 3:30 am. and our firefighters remained on the scene conducting damping down operations until 5 am.

“We are unable, at this stage, to say what the cause of the fire was. The investigation is ongoing,” the municipal release said.