A new building under construction at Lae’s Seventh Street nearly got burnt down this morning.
The donga type building belonging to the Papindo Group, caught fire when welders tried to cut a lock. Firefighters arrived on time to put out the fire before it went to other parts of the building.
At around 9:30am this morning, smoke was seen coming out of the building. The smoke was from plastic and foam placed inside the building’s steel covers. The fire started after one of the contractors who was using a welding machine to remove a steel lock, accidently burned through to the foam and plastic material.
Workers at the site had to run to safety when seeing the smoke, however, they all were called back when firefighters arrived. Fire fighters tried their very best to put of the fire as the materials contain harmful chemicals, and the smell was already polluting the area.
Earlier this year, Lae City saw three to four fires in a space of a month. The Brian Bell News center was burnt down, then Pelgens. The fire service has not been able to contain major fires. While the response this morning was quick, the service continues to face ongoing capacity problems.
More work is expected to be done to fix damaged sections of the building.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=TMF4-D10USo%3Ffeature%3Doembed%26wmode%3Dopaque%26showinfo%3D0%26showsearch%3D0%26rel%3D0
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