The Humansdorp Cultural Centre on the corner of Main Street and Voortrekker Road in the Kouga region has been damaged beyond repair after a devastating fire left the building in complete ruins on December 4.
This is after a previous fire in August last year, which caused extensive damage to the east side of the building.
Kouga Executive Mayor, Horatio Hendricks, said, this could not have happened at a worse time, as plans to restore the building, in conjunction with the Kouga Wind Farm, were in full swing.
“The necessary funding has been secured and plans to upgrade the building were approved,” he said.
“However, the building will now have to be demolished once all processes have been followed and completed, and we will have to return to the drawing board – rendering months of hard work fruitless.”
According to Hendricks, the fire, that was most likely caused by homeless people making a fire inside the building, was reported at approximately 21:30 on Sunday, December 4, and the Kouga Fire Department was at the scene at 21:33.
The dome and remaining thatch roof that did not burn during the previous fire were well alight. The fire-fighting crew conducted a primary survey to ensure that there are no people inside the building, after which they proceeded to protect immediate exposures and extinguished the thatch that was burning on the ground around the building.
The premises are surrounded by fencing and no entry danger warning signage.
The Kouga Fire Department left the scene at 01:20 on Monday morning.
No one was injured.
