Cape Town - Four people, three of them firefighters, were injured in an explosion in a Hout Bay fish and chip shop on Monday night and admitted to hospital, emergency services said.
A fifth person was slightly injured in the blast at the shop, a converted shipping container that had caught alight after 7pm.
The explosion reduced the container to a blackened shell.
“It was in Harbour Road at about 7.39pm. Upon arrival, firefighters established that a shipping container was alight,” Cape Town Disaster Risk Management spokesman Wilfred Solomons-Johannes said.
“There was a struggle to open the door and when it opened an adult male, an adult female and three firefighters were injured.”
Anthony Chemalie, manager of WatchCon, said the wife of shopowner George Isepi was in the Max & Maritz Fish and Chips shop when the fire broke out.
“When four fire and rescue personnel managed to break down the door, the fire spread to a gas bottle that exploded,” he said. “The cause of the initial fire is unknown.”
Chemalie said Isepi was treated at the scene.
Cape Town Fire and Rescue Service spokeswoman Sharon Bosch said: “The call-out originally received was that of a vegetation fire, but when our firefighters arrived, they discovered a place on fire.”
A woman firefighter and two male colleagues were admitted to the Christian Barnard Memorial Hospital. Their condition was stable. Isepi’s wife, whose name has not been released, was admitted to Victoria Hospital.
Cape Times