Clothing outlet Fashion World at Walvis Bay burnt to ashes on Saturday evening in a fire that, because of the strong wind, nearly razed the entire building at the corner of Hage Geingob Street and 12th Avenue. The complex houses other businesses, including the New Era regional bureau office for Erongo Region. Smoke billowed over the whole central business district of Walvis Bay as firefighters went all out to extinguish the fire. It took them almost two hours finally to extinguish the blaze as the wind was also not in their favour.
According to the Walvis Bay fire chief, Dennis Basson, it is suspected that the fire was caused by a short circuit in one of the back offices of the shop. He said that the fire started around 19h45. “We responded promptly,” he said. The fire quickly spread from the back offices to the roof. According to Basson the firefighters could not fight the fire from inside as it was very risky due to the building being old and the roof could have collapsed on them at anytime. “We tried our best to stop the fire from outside and we did. We wanted the fire not to spread to the other shops in close proximity, which would have been disastrous.”