National Fire Authority (NFA) attended to a fire incident in Raiwai, Suva this afternoon which destroyed two adjoining buildings belonging to Caines Jannif and Tissue Manufacturers respectively.

At 1.56pm, Suva Fire Station received a fire emergency call at Caines Jannif in Raiwai and immediately responded.

Upon arrival at 2.05pm, the Fire Team saw the two buildings fully engulfed in flames. The Fire Team quickly got to work with deliveries of water to extinguish the fire. The Fire Team also used fire hydrants in the area to extinguish the fire.

The Suva Fire Team was supported by Valelevu and Nausori Fire Teams who were all deployed to aggressively fight the fire, particularly given the high level of economic activities in that vicinity.

The flammable materials inside the two businesses resulted in the fire fully engulfing the whole building in quick time.

The Fire Team bravely fought the fire as strong winds at that time was a huge obstruction in their work but they control the situation very well to confine the fire within the two buildings and stopped it from spreading to other business properties in the vicinity which included an engineering company in the same compound and Fiji National University’s property which was a few metres away.

The high content of flammable material such as papers, framing timber and flammable liquids, etc also made the work of the Firefighters very difficult and lengthened the time taken to quickly extinguish the fire.

A total of four fire trucks and more than thirty-five firefighters were engaged to put out the fire.

Chief Fire Officer Mr. Qionilau Moceitai commended the Fire Teams for their brave effort in putting out the fire under intense conditions and stopped it from spreading to the neighbouring businesses and thus avoiding a major calamity in the area.

He also thanked the Police for their effort in controlling the traffic and preventing the public from entering the area, Water Authority of Fiji for boosting the water supply pressure in the area and FEA for ensuring the safety of the public by cutting off the live power lines in the area.

NFA will be conducting its fire investigations with Police.