BY RITESH KUMAR
The National Fire Authority (NFA) is concerned after fire destroyed another supermarket last night.
The NFA Tavua responded to the fire emergency call which was received at 2213hrs stating that there was black smoke and flames seen at the back of the Shop and Save Supermarket.
When the crew arrived, part of the supermarket was fully engulfed with flames and this spread to the rest of the supermarket very quickly. Three fire trucks were used to fight the fire. NFA Tavua, Ba and Vatukoula Gold Mine Fire Truck and team also assisted in fighting the fire.
Firefighters fought hard to extinguish the fire and were able to contain the fire within the Shop N Save Supermarket building and stopped it from spreading to the row of adjacent shops in the Main Street of Tavua Town. The supermarket was totally burnt with all its content.
NFA investigations are continuing to determine the cause of this supermarket fire incident.
Chief Executive Officer John O’Connor expressed his concern at the recent two supermarket fires.
He highlighted that it was very difficult to fight and contain these fires due to storage of combustible materials with hazardous materials such as kerosene, benzene, gas and other such materials.
Mr O’Connor is also urging the business owners and in particularly the supermarkets to ensure that their businesses comply with NFA’s fire safety requirements and the storage of materials.
He highlighted that instruction has been given to the fire safety inspectors to ask for material safety data sheets for hazardous materials so that proper storage can be enforced.
Furthermore, the NFA CEO highlighted that NFA will also strictly inspect bulk store of supermarkets and make relevant recommendations to the operators to ensure they comply with fire requirements as this will stop the spread of fires quickly from bulk to other areas of the supermarket.
Meanwhile NFA also managed to put out a boat fire at the Narayan Jetty in Suva today.
At 1220hrs, NFA Suva received the boat fire call and immediately responded to the fire call. Upon arrival, the crew saw the thick black smoke coming out of the deck area of the Lau Trader which was berthed at the Narayan Jetty.