By Bev Mortimer
The Jeffreys Bay police are investigating a case of arson in respect of the fire that destroyed a Billabong warehouse in Da Gama Road between around midnight on 28 June and the early hours of 29 June.
Firemen were still at the scene trying to extinguish the last remnants of the blaze at 5 am yesterday.
According to a media statement received late yesterday afternoon from Uitenhage cluster police officer, Sgt Nkosi, “a preliminary investigation suggests foul play and police are investigating a case of arson.”
Meanwhile a Billabong statement received yesterday 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 also issued a release at 8.30 yesterday morninmg that said the Kouga Fire Department was alerted about 12:25 am. that the Billabong warehouse in Da Gama 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.
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