FIRE broke out at one of the country’s top financial institution Standard Bank today.
Although, it was contained and extinguished before it could spread out, the cause of the fire has been blamed on loadshedding at Standard Bank’s Simmonds Street complex in Johannesburg CBD.
According to press release the fire broke out at its Energy Management Centre early this morning.
“The bank’s engineers and real estate personnel were able to contain the situation. While repairs are underway, there are sufficient redundancies in the building’s energy management systems to ensure that adequate energy coverage is maintained.
The City of Johannesburg Emergency Services have declared the building safe for occupation,” read a media statement from the agency acting on behalf of the bank.
“All the bank’s back-up and safety features housed within the Energy Management Centre – including fire detection, emergency system by-pass and response – proved resilient and operated as expected, thus minimizing damage, and allowing for a speedy and efficient recovery of services,” continued the press release.
Fortunately, no casualties were reported at the time of publishing.
The bank wishes to extend an apology to its clients and employees who were inconvenienced by the incident.
The building will re-open for business on Wednesday after a temporary closure today.
