{"id":914323,"date":"2022-01-07T15:47:35","date_gmt":"2022-01-07T15:47:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/news\/2022\/01\/07\/parliament-blaze-fire-departments-report-would-assist-ongoing-investigation\/"},"modified":"2022-01-07T15:47:35","modified_gmt":"2022-01-07T15:47:35","slug":"parliament-blaze-fire-departments-report-would-assist-ongoing-investigation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/01\/07\/parliament-blaze-fire-departments-report-would-assist-ongoing-investigation\/","title":{"rendered":"Parliament blaze: Fire department\u2019s report would assist ongoing investigation"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Cape Town – Parliament said that the report of the City of Cape Town\u2019s Fire Department which it received on Friday on the blaze in the parliamentary complex would assist the ongoing investigations that are under way.<\/p>\n

Spokesperson Moloto Mothapo confirmed that the presiding officers had received the fire and safety report from City of Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Mothapo also said the report contained preliminary observations of the firefighters during the course of their work, which was a standard procedure when dealing with incidents of this nature.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe information does not in any way purport to provide conclusive findings and evidence regarding the cause and the circumstances surrounding the fire that gutted certain buildings at the Parliamentary precinct.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe responsibility to investigate the source of the fire rests with the law enforcement agencies, and their investigation is currently under way,\u201d Mothapo said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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MORE ON THIS<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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He also said the fire department\u2019s report was important and would assist the ongoing investigations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese investigations must be afforded space to unfold. Parliament will only comment after these investigations are concluded and we are confident that they will be finalised in due course, and will provide concrete evidence and findings regarding the fire,\u201d Mothapo said.<\/p>\n

He made the statement after the City of Cape Town\u2019s fire department said earlier that it found that the sprinkler system was last serviced in 2017.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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This emerged in a report the city made public, with Hill-Lewis saying it was a post-incident report prepared by the city\u2019s fire department on the fire that engulfed Parliament.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the interests of transparency, and following great public interest, we release it publicly without any additional comment,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The report, dated January 4, said it was not \u201can official\u201d fire report on the incident that left extensive damage to the Old Assembly and the National Assembly.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cIt is for information purposes and provides the observations of city fire safety officers who worked on the scene,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

In the report, divisional commander Wayne Visser said he did a \u201cbrief check\u201d of fire suppression equipment and related fire safety matters at the Old Assembly building site.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe external fire hydrants were well marked and maintained; adequate access provided.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThe sprinkler control valve set on the southern fa\u00e7ade of the Old Assembly building had not activated. Sprinklers did not activate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sprinklers were last serviced last in 2017, with service scheduled for (February) 2020,\u201d Visser said.<\/p>\n

He also said It was unclear which apportion of the building was actually fitted out with sprinklers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThe required layout block plan at the valve set was illegible,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said the fire detection and alarm was present but he was uncertain of the extent of the system, because of the extensive damage that had occurred.<\/p>\n

Visser also said general fire informational signage was well presented although some non-SABS signs were found.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cA major contributing factor to the excessive heat and smoke encountered throughout the building was the open-latching of fire doors onto the fire escape staircases using small metal latches.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe \u201crabbit warren\u201d of locked office configurations off feeder passages negatively affected any ventilation occurring from inner spaces,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

According to Visser, the emergency staircases were poorly ventilated with minimal natural vents encountered to the outside, and that no mechanical venting of the staircases was observed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cWall panelling and d\u00e9cor materials presented additional fire loading throughout the building,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Visser\u2019s observations were confirmed by station commander JJ Williams, who said that during his walk around of the affected areas he found that the National Assembly sprinkler valve was not serviced.<\/p>\n

\u201cService date was February 2017 and this needs to be done every three years and the valve appeared to be closed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cIf properly serviced, this valve should have been locked with a chain in an open position and a block plan would have been available showing system layout,\u201d Williams said.<\/p>\n

He also said the lifts continued to operate despite a \u201cbreak glass\u201d unit at one lift being activated.<\/p>\n

[email protected]<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Political Bureau<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cape Town – Parliament said that the report of the City of Cape Town\u2019s Fire Department which it received on Friday on the blaze in the parliamentary complex would assist the ongoing investigations that are under way. Spokesperson Moloto Mothapo confirmed that the presiding officers had received the fire and safety report from City of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-914323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-headlines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/914323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=914323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/914323\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=914323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=914323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=914323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}