Cape Town - The Greek Orthodox Cathedral of St George in Woodstock was badly affected by a blaze in its candle-manufacturing room on Thursday.
A blaze left the room gutted, with no injuries reported. It is still unsure what caused the fire.
Father Nikolaos Giamouridis was on the scene as firefighters put out the blaze in Mountain Road, Woodstock.
“That place there (affected by the blaze), we make the candles for the church,” he said. “Then the caretaker did the candles for the month and then he switched off everything and went to the church to do the cleaning, and after that the fire started, we don't know why but he knows. Maybe because of the gas bottles and everything. We don’t know. He was alone, we don’t know exactly what happened.”
Chairperson of the Hellenic (Greek) Community of Cape Town, Foti Sousalis, was also on the scene. Sousalis said the church is the oldest Greek Orthodox cathedral in Africa.
“We don't know how it started,” he said.
The City’s Fire and Rescue Service spokesperson, Jermaine Carelse said they received an emergency call at 12:33pm of the building alight.
Salt River and Roeland Street fire crews were dispatched to the scene immediately.
“The single storey building attached to the church was fully engulfed in flames and firefighters had to contain the spread of fire upon arrival. The entire workshop, where candles are manufactured were destroyed in the blaze as well as minimal damages to the entrance hall of the church,” said Carelse.
The fire was extinguished at 1:22pm and with no injuries reported.
Cape Argus