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South Africa: devastating fire in parliament resumes after lull

2022-01-03T16:24:50.483Z


The emergency services announced in the morning that the fire was under control. A man was arrested and charged with theft and arson.


The devastating fire, which broke out on Sunday destroying a large part of the South African Parliament in Cape Town and which firefighters had managed to control overnight after 24 hours of intense fighting, resumed violently on Monday (January 3) in the afternoon.

A thick cloud of smoke was once again rising from the roofs of the imposing Victorian building and flames were again visible, according to AFP journalists on the spot.

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"

The fire has resumed in the roof of the building housing the National Assembly

", whose enclosure was completely ravaged by flames the day before, told AFP the spokesperson for the city's firefighters, Jermaine Carelse.

The emergency services announced in the morning that the fire was under control and only a dozen firefighters were still there.

In a few minutes, around thirty of them were again present.

As the day before, some were trying from the top of a crane to overcome the flames.

Two separate fires

The fire started on Sunday around 5:00 am (03:00 GMT), in the oldest wing of the building, completed in 1884. In this historic part, which conceals some 4000 works of art and heritage, some of which date back to the 17th century , the roof was completely destroyed, leaving a gaping hole. In these old rooms covered with precious wood and adorned with rich rugs and curtains, the heat was still intense on Monday, approaching 100 degrees. A 49-year-old man, arrested inside Parliament, has been charged with "

burglary and arson

" and is due to be brought to justice on Tuesday.

The vast building is made up of three parts: a recent building housing the current National Assembly, another housing the Upper House of Parliament, called the National Council of Provinces, and the oldest part where parliamentarians previously met. Some rooms have not yet been opened, to protect them but also because the structure is unstable, according to the emergency services. The presidents of the two chambers and members of the government met in the middle of the day with experts to establish a first inventory. But the operation was limited for security reasons. In the morning, the night firefighters left Parliament behind the wheel of their trucks, to the cheers of passers-by and journalists posted on the sidewalk. On the television,the parliamentary channel displays a blue screen, programming is interrupted.

According to the first findings of investigators, the fire broke out in two separate homes and the automatic extinguishing system could not work properly, the water had been turned off. A report must be promptly given to the police. This is the second time in less than a year that Parliament has been damaged by fire. A quickly contained fire broke out in March. The building is located a few hundred meters from St. George's Cathedral where the funeral of the hero of the anti-apartheid struggle, Bishop Desmond Tutu, took place on Saturday. Cape Town has been the seat of Parliament since 1910, with government based in Pretoria. In February 1990, the last white South African president FW de Klerk, who died in November, announced there the end of the racist apartheid regime.

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2022-01-03

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