{"id":920248,"date":"2022-01-28T09:45:10","date_gmt":"2022-01-28T09:45:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/news\/2022\/01\/28\/businesses-near-durbans-fire-ravaged-china-emporium-evacuated\/"},"modified":"2022-01-28T09:45:10","modified_gmt":"2022-01-28T09:45:10","slug":"businesses-near-durbans-fire-ravaged-china-emporium-evacuated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/01\/28\/businesses-near-durbans-fire-ravaged-china-emporium-evacuated\/","title":{"rendered":"Businesses near Durban\u2019s fire-ravaged China Emporium evacuated"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/5a5fee32-6a8f-5b3c-a440-9b555018eee8&#038;operation=CROP&#038;offset=0x133&#038;resize=2242x1261.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"><\/div>\n<div><!--sse--><\/p>\n<p>Durban &#8211; Businesses situated near Durban&#8217;s China Emporium have been evacuated as a safety precaution, eThekwini Municipality said on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>The city&#8217;s head of communication, Lindiwe Khuzwayo, said they will continue to monitor the situation at China Emporium to ensure the safety of the public after a fire gutted the building.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>She said the building has been condemned following assessments by structural engineers appointed by the building owners at the request of eThekwini Municipality.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Businesses in the precinct have been evacuated while some road lanes remain closed as the structural integrity of the building is believed to be compromised.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe lane closures have resulted in high traffic volumes on Brook Street and Dr Pixley ka Seme Street near the building,&#8221; Khuzwayo said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"RelatedArticlescss__StyledRelatedArticles-sc-10g88yu-0 ezIKFV\">\n<h2><span>MORE ON THIS<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Motorists are urged to be patient when driving in the vicinity.<\/p>\n<p>Three lanes on Anton Lembede Street remain open as advised by structural engineers.<\/p>\n<p>The city\u2019s Fire and Emergency Services will continue to maintain a presence near the building as a safety precaution.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>The public is urged to avoid the vicinity of the building if possible and use alternative routes.<\/p>\n<p>The public will be informed if there are further developments.<\/p>\n<p>On Thursday,  reported that the building is expected to be demolished.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>According to eThekwini Fire Department Divisional Commander Nkulumo Dube, a meeting was convened between city structural engineers and insurance assessors to decide on the way forward.<\/p>\n<p>He added that it was decided that the structure would be demolished. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cEveryone, including the owners, have been informed that no one is allowed to enter the building,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Last week, a fire broke out at the premises. At least 15 people were rescued from the building. No injuries were reported. <\/p>\n<p><strong id=\"strong-f25cbedaa296c96b5fa1c47586bdfe83\"><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><!--\/sse--><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Durban &#8211; Businesses situated near Durban&#8217;s China Emporium have been evacuated as a safety precaution, eThekwini Municipality said on Friday. The city&#8217;s head of communication, Lindiwe Khuzwayo, said they will continue to monitor the situation at China Emporium to ensure the safety of the public after a fire gutted the building. She said the building [&hellip;]<\/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-920248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-headlines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/920248","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=920248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/920248\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=920248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=920248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=920248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}