A fire that broke out at a second hand motor dealership in Welkom early last night was brought under control and finally extinguished hours later by members of the Matjhabeng Municipality’s Fire Brigade. Assistant Chief Fire Officer, Francois Klaassen, says they received a call from a security company just before 20:00 about the fire at Welkom Nissan’s showroom.

He says upon their arrival a bakkie and a smaller car adjacent to it was already burning at the back of the showroom. They had to break the showroom’s windows to gain entrance.

There was a lot of smoke when members of the fire brigade arrived at the scene. They extinguished the fire and then ventilated the building after which they started with an investigation. He says a preliminary investigation shows that the fire could have stared by an electrical fault of the lights in the roof that sent the bakkie and the car next to it alight.

The bakkie was destroyed while the car next to it was partially burned. Klaassen says six other cars were damaged by the heat of the flames and smoke. – Christal-Lize Muller