By Kaya 959 News
On Thursday night a fire broke that saw 200 military vehicles burnt to ashes at the military’s Wallmansthal vehicle depot, north of Pretoria.
The vehicle included Nyalas, trailers and other military equipment.
It is suspected a fire that broke out near an informal settlement and spread to the army base, resulting in some vehicles catching fire.
Last night a fire destroyed military vehicles and equipment at Pretoria base near Hammanskaal. SANDF says the vehicles were beyond repair. Cause of fire unknown pic.twitter.com/ADfjw49YQU
— Alex Reporter (@AlexReporterZA) September 17, 2021
A twitter user named Darren Olivier, who’s bio says he is the Director at African Defence Review said:
“This happened at Wallmansthal, in the outdoor storage area which mostly contains out of service vehicles that have been stripped for parts & are awaiting sale or scrapping. So there’s no operational impact on the SANDF. That said, fire prevention measures are clearly inadequate.”
According TimesLive, the Sinoville Firefighting Association, which was first on the scene, the fire broke out just before 7pm on Thursday.
“An officer from the army base called to say the base was on fire, and the section where they park vehicles, and they needed our assistance very urgently. We immediately dispatched members with a fire engine, and they arrived there at about 7.15pm,” said association chairperson JP Botha.
“The vehicles are still burning this afternoon,” Botha said on Friday.
Chairman JP Botha said the vehicles were parked next to each other.
“Between 500 and a thousand vehicles, which in addition to tankers and Nyalas include forklifts, trailers and trucks, burned out. The fire started outside of the base, there is an informal settlement there and spread inside where the vehicles were parked.”
