FULL STORY
17 April 2009 17:00 local time.
The Paarl Print plant in Dal Josafat Industrial Estate, Paarl in the Cape Boland, has been extensively damaged in a fire that broke out just before 08h00 this morning. The cause of the fire has yet to be ascertained. The management of Paarl Print are fully cooperating and working with the authorities involved in the investigations thereof.
Eleven employees have been hospitalised and seven fatalities confirmed. Names and further details will be released once their next of kin have been informed. A full trauma centre, manned by professional counselors, has been established to provide counseling and assistance to all those affected. The trauma centre’s contact number is 0844001966.
‘This is a great tragedy for the whole Paarl Print family and the Paarl Media Group,’ said Mike Ehret, managing director of Paarl Print. ‘Our people are passionate about this company and are very shocked about what has occurred.’ He also expressed his heartfelt sympathies with the employees and their families.
Stephen van der Walt the CEO of the Paarl Media Group added, ‘This is the most tragic incident we have had within the Paarl Media Group and our first priority is towards our staff of Paarl Print and their families. A fund will be established to assist all the families of the victims.’
Paarl Print specialises in the printing of books into South Africa and Africa. All clients affected will be individually contacted by Paarl Print management.
Ehret concluded by thanking the fire, ambulance, emergency and police services that have come to their assistance. ‘Their professionalism and courage has been an inspiration,’ said Ehret.
The photograph above is one of a series taken throughout the day by Nico Retief and published on the News24.com Website.
© Graphic Repro On-line, 17 April 2009.
News Timeline on News24.com
Fire razes Paarl Print building
17/04/2009 10:18 (SA) Verashni Pillay News24.com
Cape Town - A fire destroyed Paarl Print's printing presses and offices in Paarl on Friday morning, injuring several people, firefighters said.
‘The fire has not yet been put out but it's under control,’ Drakenstein fire services assistant chief Dereck Peceur said. The fire was still raging and firefighters were moving from the periphery of the fire, where it was contained, to the centre in search of people when News24 spoke to firefighters just after 10:00.
Peceur said the fire was extensive and involved the entire building, situated in Paarl's industrial area. Firefighters were still ascertaining the number and extent of injuries. Some people had already been rushed to Paarl Medi-Clinic.
More details to follow.
Five in ICU after Paarl fire
17/04/2009 11:39 (SA) Verashni Pillay News24.com
Cape Town - Five people have been admitted to Paarl Medi-Clinic's intensive care unit in a serious condition after a fire gutted Paarl Print on Friday morning, the clinic said.
Two others were admitted to general wards. The clinic could not comment immediately on the nature of their injuries. Firefighters were still searching for injured people as the fire was slowly being brought under control.
Paarl Media, which owns Paarl Print, was investigating the incident on Friday morning and trying to ascertain the extent of the damage and the number of workers injured. ‘It's really unfortunate,’ said company spokesperson Nelia Burger. ‘The factory has been badly damaged.’
Neither firefighters nor the company could confirm the extent of the damage. Burger said when she was last on the scene at 09:30, buildings around the factory such as the administration, archive and human resources buildings, had escaped serious damage.
Drakenstein fire services assistant chief Dereck Peceur told News24 that the fire was extensive and ‘involved the whole building’.
Fire door
Burger said staff had managed to put a fire door in place in the paper store. Paarl Print, situated on 22 Oosterland street in Paarl's Dal Josafat industrial area, specialises in the printing and finishing of high quality books, labels, brochures and similar printed matter.
The factory employs 250 to 300 people, but it was not clear how many were on duty at the time of the fire, which broke out just after 08:00.
Christelle Els said her mother, who was working in the factory at the time, was ‘dazed and confused’. ‘People panicked immensely and rushed out of the building,’ said Els, based on accounts from her mother. ‘A fireman grabbed hold of my mom's hand and assisted her out of the building. I am of the understanding that a few people lost their cars as well.’ Els said, ‘They don't know where they should go on Monday, as they have no offices and no factory to go back to.’
Paarl fire claims first victims – reports
17/04/2009 13:05 - (SA) News24.com
Cape Town - Emergency services personnel have found a seventh body at a printing works in Paarl after a fire on Friday morning, Eyewitness news reported. It is not clear what caused the blaze but staff were evacuated from the building shortly after they arrived for work.
Twelve people were admitted to hospital. Eight of them are in a serious condition.
News24 reported earlier that five people were admitted to Paarl Medi-Clinic's intensive care unit in a serious condition after the fire gutted Paarl Print on Friday morning.
Two others were admitted to general wards. The clinic could not comment immediately on the nature of their injuries. Another five were admitted to Paarl Provincial Hospital.
Paarl Print fire under control
17/04/2009 14:24 - (SA) News24.com
Cape Town - A fire at a Paarl printing company, which claimed six employees when a blaze swept through the works on Friday morning, is under control.
Assistant chief of the Drakenstein fire department Dereck Peceur said another 13 workers were hospitalised, some of them with second-degree burns. He said the fire broke out shortly before 08:00 in a building housing printing equipment, a bindery and a storage area, and the workers who died were trapped inside.
The fire was under control just after 13:00, but it was still ‘extremely hot’ inside the building, which had been gutted from end to end. Firefighters from the adjacent Cape Winelands municipality had also been called in to help. Peceur said he did not know at this stage how the fire started. The department would be able to investigate only once things had cooled down.
Flash burns, inhalation wounds
Spokesperson for Paarl Medi-Clinic Corne Bekker said seven of the fire victims had been admitted to the hospital. Two were in a normal ward and five in the intensive care unit, she said. They were being treated for flash burns and inhalation wounds. The burns ranged from minimal, to injuries covering 75 per cent of their bodies, she said. All the intensive care patients would go into theatre on Friday afternoon so doctors could clean their wounds under anaesthetic.
Paarl Print's switchboard was out of action on Friday afternoon, but the company reportedly has 280 employees at its Paarl site.
According to its Website, the plant offered an extensive flat sheet division (sheetfed offset), web (not housed at the same facility), book press and a state-of-the-art bindery.
It offered full-colour printing as well as cost efficient production of books and diaries.
The site says Paarl Print is 100 per cent BEE compliant with a 36 per cent black shareholding.
In February this year fire destroyed a R200m magazine printing press in Cape Town's Montague Gardens owned by another company, Paarl Media.
- SAPA
Fire spread 'extremely quickly'
17/04/2009 16:09 - (SA) News24.com
Cape Town - The fire at a Paarl printing company spread ‘extremely quickly’ and almost the entire factory was destroyed, the company's spokesperson said. Paarl Media spokesperson Nelia Burger could not however say at this stage how the fire began. ‘There will be an investigation launched soon, obviously,’ she said.
Seven employees died in the blaze, a fire official said.
Assistant chief of the Drakenstein fire department Dereck Peceur said another 13 workers were hospitalised, some of them with second-degree burns.
The fire was the second this year at a plant owned by Naspers subsidiary Paarl Media. In February, a blaze destroyed a R200m (gravure) magazine printing press at Paarl Gravure in Cape Town's Montague Gardens, with no casualties.
Fire started at 08:00
Peceur said the fire broke out in the Boland town's industrial area, shortly before 08:00. The building housed offices, printing equipment, a bindery and a storage area, and the workers who died were trapped inside.
The fire was under control just after 13:00, but it was still ‘extremely hot’ inside the building, which had been gutted from end to end.
Fire-fighters from the adjacent Cape Winelands municipality had also been called in to help. Peceur was unable to confirm a rumour that the fire was caused by a gas leak in a staff canteen.
An employee at a nearby building told Sapa that the air in the vicinity of the blaze had been ‘so black and so thick with smoke it was difficult to breathe’. ‘Everyone's still standing around crying,’ she said.
Five victims in ICU
Spokesperson for Paarl Medi-Clinic Corne Bekker said seven of the fire victims had been admitted to that hospital.
Two were in a normal ward and five in the intensive care unit. They were being treated for flash burns and inhalation wounds. The burns ranged from minimal, to injuries covering 75 per cent of their bodies, she said.
All the intensive care patients would go into theatre on Friday afternoon so doctors could clean their wounds under anaesthetic.
Burger said about 300 people are employed at the plant, but because they worked shifts, there could have been only about 150 on duty. ‘We're still busy doing a head count to make sure who was on the shift,’ she said.
This was made more difficult by the fact that the computerised clocking-in records had been destroyed in the flames.
She said Paarl Print ran off books, diaries, short-run magazines, brochures and school textbooks, and did a lot of work for the government and other African countries. Arrangements were being made to finish jobs at other plants.
According to the Paarl Media Website, the plant offered an extensive flat sheet division, web facilities (web is housed elsewhere), book press and a state-of-the-art bindery. The site says Paarl Print is 100 per cent BEE compliant with a 36 per cent black shareholding. Paarl Print and News24 are both Naspers companies.
- SAPA
Bekker: This is a huge loss
17/04/2009 18:01 - (SA) News24.com
Cape Town - The fire that broke out on Friday morning at Paarl Print has claimed the lives of seven people so far, in what Naspers CEO Koos Bekker describes as 'the - biggest loss of life - as far as I know - that our group has ever experienced'.
In a statement, Bekker expressed his condolences to the families of the victims. He says steps that are being taken include counseling for the families of those who died and for those injured.
A fund has also been set up for families who suffered bereavement and for medical costs that may not be covered by insurance.
The fire at a Paarl printing company spread 'extremely quickly' and almost the entire factory was destroyed, the company's spokesperson Nelia Burger said.
According to Bekker the cause of the fire is not yet clear, nor why it spread so rapidly. 'It seems that this fire (unlike the previous one at Montague Gardens) did not start on a printing press, but was a factory fire. Several aspects still need clarification.'
Assistant chief of the Drakenstein fire department Dereck Peceur says the fire broke out in the Boland town's industrial area, shortly before 08:00. The department would be able to investigate only once things had cooled down. Peceur said another 13 workers were hospitalised, some of them with second-degree burns.
The fire was the second this year at a plant owned by Naspers subsidiary Paarl Media.
Peceur said the building housed offices, printing equipment, a bindery and a storage area, and the workers who died were trapped inside.
Bekker says the extent of the financial loss has also not been established, 'but we are insured. Rands are a sideshow here: to lose money is a pity, but the loss of life is a tragedy on quite a different scale'.
- News24 and Sapa
Two missing after Paarl fire
18/04/2009 16:05 - (SA) News24.com
Johannesburg - Police were looking for two more people believed to have been trapped in the burning Paarl printing factory on Friday, SABC reported on Saturday.
According to police spokesperson Louise du Plessis the forensic unit, as well as the dog unit were searching the wreckage for the two people. ‘So far seven people have been killed, 12 injured and of those 12, two were seriously injured. We are hoping that we might find two more people today (Saturday),’ she said.
The fire was the second this year at a plant owned by Naspers subsidiary Paarl Media. In February a blaze destroyed a R200m magazine printing press at Paarl Gravure in Cape Town's Montague Gardens, with no casualties.
Friday's fire broke out at Paarl Print, in the Boland town's industrial area, shortly before 08:00. The building housed offices, printing equipment, a bindery and a storage area, and the workers who died were trapped inside.
Fire-fighters from the adjacent Cape Winelands municipality had also been called in to help. It is still unknown how the fire started.
- SAPA and News24
Paarl fire killed nine
18/04/2009 21:53 - (SA) – News24.com
Johannesburg - The number of people who died in a fire at a Paarl printing factory had risen to nine, the Paarl Media Group said on Saturday.
Spokesperson Nelia Burger said two more bodies were found at the factory on Saturday in addition to the original seven people who burnt to death in the blaze which broke out on Friday.
She also said two people were released from hospital, leaving nine still under hospital care. Two of those still in hospital remain in a serious but stable condition. Burger said everyone was now accounted for after the blaze.
She said there was a delay in getting the last two bodies out because the building was left unstable after the fire.
'There were parts they couldn't get into and the roof had caved in. It was dark inside.
'It was a massive building so they had to go through it bit by bit.'
Tragedy
The media group's CEO Stephen van der Walt said: "Bricks and mortar can be rebuilt, but losing members of our team is the biggest tragedy and our priority at this time.
'We have all lost close friends and colleagues and still have employees whom are critically injured in the hospital," he said. "We deeply mourn the impact on human life.'
Burger said a trauma centre was established on the factory site to support employees. She said the company was starting a family support fund for the victims' next of kin.
Financial donations or non-perishable food parcels and other useful items for the families of the victims would be appreciated.
Second fire
The fire was the second this year at a plant owned by Naspers' subsidiary Paarl Media. In February a blaze destroyed a R200m magazine printing press at Paarl Gravure in Cape Town's Montague Gardens, with no casualties.
Friday's fire broke out at Paarl Print, in the Boland town's industrial area, shortly before 08:00. The building housed offices, printing equipment, a bindery and a storage area, and the workers who died were trapped inside.
Fire-fighters from the adjacent Cape Winelands municipality had also been called in to help. It is still unknown how the fire started, although police investigations into the cause were underway.
- SAPA and News24.com
Click here for the bulletin on News24.com added 20/04/2009 08:25 (SA).
'He died like a hero'
Click here for the latest bulletin on News24.com added 21/04/2009 09:06 (SA).
Wedding to go on, despite fire
For additional and ongoing news, please visit: www.news24.com > News > South Africa
© News24.com updated 18, 19, 20 and 21 April 2009 on Graphic Repro On-line.
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