Carlton Centre on High Street remains a potential hot spot for fires, despite a scare on the property less than a year ago.
Carlton Centre on High Street remains a potential hot spot for fires, despite a scare on the property less than a year ago.
In September last year, a fire broke out in a back alley behind Checkers and caused smoke damage to the stock at Mr Price.
Willie Erasmus, fire department volunteer, reported that the fire equipment was not up to scratch and a resident wrote a letter to Grocott’s Mail stating that Checkers staff panicked and didn’t know their fire procedure.
When Checkers sales manager Sizwe Babe was asked if they have an official fire evacuation plan he said “not really”.
Checkers has serviced fire extinguishers stationed around the supermarket and sent five staff members to the fire department for training.
However, they are the only staff members that have been shown how to operate the fire extinguishers. Babe feels confident that at least one of the trained staff will always be at work.
Mr Price manager, Gersom Du Plessis, attended health and safety training and has evacuation routes planned in case of a fire.
However, his assistant manager, Lulama Mhlope did not know where the fire extinguishers were and had to turn to the manager for help.
Other shops at the centre; Jessica’s fashions and The Juice Bar, had one extinguisher each which had missed the service date by four and three months respectively.
The Juice Bar employees were unconcerned by the lack of functional fire equipment and were not aware of any plans to service the extinguisher.
Platoon commander Robert Brooks said that the Grahamstown fire department inspects every business in town once a year.
However, he noted that twice or three times a year is preferable. If a business does not comply with fire regulations they are issued with a letter of warning. If they fail to comply on return inspection, they can be faced with a fine.
