The City of Cape Town has released the post-incident Parliament fire assessment report compiled by the City’s Fire services.

The report finds the fire detection system appeared faulty, that the fire doors were latched which assisted in the spreading of the fire, and that the sprinkler system did not activate and valves appeared to have been closed.

Mayor Geordin Hill Lewis says the report has already been sent to the Speaker of parliament, as official investigations by the Hawks into the cause of fire gets underway.

Hill Lewis says it reflects the observations of professionals, but does not in any way constitute or substitute for a full forensic investigation conducted by professional fire investigators.

Some of their observations include:

• The latching open of fire doors assisted in the spread of the fire.
• The Sprinkler system did not activate, was not serviced, and the valves appeared to have been closed. These should have been locked open with a chain.
• It’s unclear what portions of the building are sprinkler fitted. The required block plan is not legible.
• It’s unclear if the fire alarm and detection system was operational. No fire alarm was received by Cape Town Fire Service from the old or new National Assembly buildings. An alarm was received after the fire fighters were already on scene from Tuynhuys adjacent to the assembly buildings.
• The HVAC system failed to shut down forcing the City to isolate electricity to the block.
• The lift safety trip did not operate.
• Some emergency staircases were overcome by smoke due to latching open of fire doors.

The full report can be downloaded HERE.

Fire