A fire broke out in the South African Parliament this Sunday, in the city of Cape Town, southwest of the country.
Officials said the fire started on the third floor offices and quickly spread to the National Assembly, the parliament’s lower house chamber.
No injuries have been reported and there’s no indication of what may have started it, as the parliament is not currently in session due to the holidays.
Fire and rescue service officials said it could take another four hours to put the fire out completely because of the carpets and wooden floors in the building.
The minister responsible for government infrastructure, Patricia de Lille, said the fire in the Chamber of the Council of Provinces, the upper house, had been contained, but the National Assembly was still burning.
Jean-Pierre Smith, a member of the Cape Town Municipal Committee responsible for safety and security said that “flames rose to the roof.”
The same official added that the firefighters who were sent to the scene early this morning asked for more supplies to put out the flames, noting that there were six firefighting trucks and 36 firefighters at the scene.
Last year, a fire ravaged part of the University of Cape Town’s library, which was home to a unique collection of African archives, which are currently under experts’ hands as they work to restore what they can.
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