A man was due to appear in court on Tuesday after a massive fire broke out in South Africa’s National Assembly, officials said, as fires continued to grow in the historic legislature.
An investigation has been launched into the fire that broke out around 0300 GMT on Sunday in the oldest wing of the Parliament complex, which was completed in 1884 and has wood-paneled rooms.
As the day progressed, smoke could be seen rising from the building into the blue sky.
Parliamentary spokesman Moloto Mothapo said, “The entire chamber where the members sit … has been burnt down,” adding that the fire was still not extinguished and that the fire had broken out in two separate areas.
No casualties were reported, but President Cyril Ramaphosa told reporters at the scene that one person had been captured and that the sprinkler system had apparently failed.
Later on Sunday, police said a suspect was to be produced in court.
“One person has been arrested inside Parliament, he is still being questioned. We have opened a criminal case. He has been arrested and will be produced in the court on Tuesday.”
The historic parliament building houses a collection of rare books and the original copy of the former African national anthem “Die Stemm van Sud-Africa” (“The Voice of South Africa”), which had already been damaged.
“The roof of the old assembly building has collapsed and gone,” Jean-Pierre Smith, a member of Cape Town’s Mayoral Committee for Safety and Security, told reporters earlier.
“There has been massive smoke and water damage throughout the building,” Smith said, adding that the fire has not been brought under control.
After ravaging the old wing of the building, flames spread to the newer parts of the complex that are currently in use.
“Firefighters are currently trying to douse the fire in the New Wing, where the fire has affected the National Assembly Chamber,” Mothapo told an online news conference earlier in the day.
The grand red and white building was still covered in a thick cloud of black at noon.
meters from Tutu’s grave
A team of firefighters who first arrived at the scene, battling the flames for several hours, were forced to retreat and call for reinforcements.
Later about 70 firefighters were deployed, some using cranes to sprinkle water on the fire.
Former Cape Town mayor and current minister Patricia de Lille warned it would take several hours to get the fire under control.
Inside the rooms, fine sprays of brown ash fell from the ceiling to the floor, which was already littered with rubble.
Emergency services said they fear the fire could spread rapidly to older rooms, which are decorated with wood, thick carpets and curtains.
Images broadcast on television previously showed huge flames rising from the ceiling.
The area around the fire in the upmarket neighborhood was quickly cordoned off.
The cordon extended to a square where flowers were still displayed in front of the nearby St George’s Cathedral, where the funeral of anti-apartheid icon Archbishop Desmond Tutu took place on Saturday.
His ashes were buried in the cathedral on Sunday – according to the instructions of the famous minor tutu – with a simple, no-frills, cheap coffin.
second fire in a year
Cape Town has been home to the Houses of Parliament of South Africa since 1910, when the separate administration formed a federation under British rule and became the predecessor of the modern South African Republic.
The site contains the National Assembly and the upper house, the National Council of Provinces, while the government is located in Pretoria.
It was in parliament where South Africa’s last apartheid president F.W. de Klerk announced plans to end the brutal white-minority regime in 1990.
The Houses of Parliament in Cape Town consist of three volumes, with new additions being built in the 1920s and 1980s.
Another fire broke out in the old wing of Parliament in March, but it was quickly brought under control.
Cape Town suffered another major fire in April, when a fire broke out on the famous Table Mountain, which overlooks the city, a unique collection of African archives in the ruined part of the Library of the University of Cape Town.
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