Fire at Old Constantia Village

An insurance company will launch an investigation into the cause of the fire at the Old Constantia Village shopping centre on Wednesday November 10 at 1.15pm.

According to City Fire and Rescue spokesman, Jermaine Carelse, they received a call at 1.19pm and the first fire crew arrived three minutes later and extinguished the fire at 3.43pm. No injuries were reported.

Mr Carelse said a hardware store and a property sales office were damaged by the fire, resulting in smoke damage to the adjacent building.

He said the centre management closed the businesses in Old Constantia Village and requested the service of a structural engineer to ascertain damages to the roof.

Deidre Paul-Diemont, spokesperson for Constantia Village which is managed by Growthpoint, did not respond to our enquiry. However a social media notice read, “We would like to let our customers know that the fire department was on the scene within minutes and attended to the matter. All tenants and customers were evacuated and no injuries reported. The cause is still unknown and is being investigated. The Old Village will remain closed until further notice, with the exception of Pick n Pay Liquors and the Alphen Spar being declared safe to trade. We would like to assure our customers, tenants and their staff that their safety and security is of the utmost importance to us.”

Diep River police also did not respond to enquiries by the time of publishing.

Anyone with information should call Diep River police at 021 710 7360.