Fire at Ashmel Spar in Berea

A devastating fire swept through a portion of Ashmel Spar in East London suburb Berea last night.

Speaking to Staff members, we found out that the fire may have started in the Bakery area, after 9 pm in the evening of 30 December 2010.

The exact cause of the fire is not yet known, and the extent of the damage is still being assessed. It does seem though that the fire at Ashmel Spar has caused extensive flame and smoke damage.

When we arrived at the Spar Supermarket in Berea, all seemed to normal, until we noticed that what we thought were just loiterers, were in fact Staff members from Ashmel Spar. Again, first impressions indicated that they were on a break, but, there were too many of them...

Then we noticed that goods were being removed from the Supermarket, via a back entrance, and being loaded into a container. This was unusual, and we looked around some more, and noticed the black smoke stains on the parapets.

We decided to go into Ashmel Spar supermarket, as it appeared there were people using the supermarket. Once inside the Shopping Centre we found that it was only the Spar that had been affected by the fire.

Unfortunately we were unable to speak to any of the management staff, although we would probably have gotten less information from them.

Fire damage at Ashmel Spar will affect not only the stock that was in the store, but also the overall profitability of the store. It must be assumed that Ashmel Spar does have insurance, but it is common knowledge that insurance never covers everything.

The Ashmel Spar fire will also impact on the staff. It would be interesting to find out if the owners and management of the supermaket will be paying the staff for down-time. Will they also honor their commitments to the casual staff employed for the Festive Season?

We are sure they will, but until then: