Swakopmund Brauhaus destroyed by fire

ONE of Swakopmund’s most popular restaurants, the Swakopmund Brauhaus in the heart of town, was destroyed by a fire in the early hours of yesterday morning.

It was the biggest fire since the 2004 inferno that gutted the Woermann Brock supermarket.Swakopmund Fire Chief Tony Moller was called to the scene at about 00h45. In less than five minutes, he and seven firefighters arrived at the scene in two fire engines.’We tackled the fire from two sides – front and back. It took us about half an hour to extinguish the flames. It was a big and risky fire because the roof was in flames and could easily have collapsed onto us, but we were well prepared and stuck to the basics,’ he said.’Two of us entered the burning building to get to the heart of the fire, while the other team members fought the flames on the outside. Fortunately, everything went according to plan and we managed to stop the fire from spreading to the adjacent shops.’The Brauhaus is situated within an arcade with a variety of shops clustered together. Because of the excellent effort by the firefighters, no damage was caused to any other buildings.’Because of the basics, we stopped allot of potential destruction,’ Moller said.Moller said an investigation would have to determine the cause of the fire, but his guess was that it started in the kitchen.The restaurant closed at about 23h45 on Wednesday night. Less than an hour later, the owner of the restaurant, Enjo Müller, was alerted by the security call-centre that the restaurant’s alarm had gone off. The security guard who went to inspect allegedly heard a ‘bang’ coming from the restaurant and reported a fire.Within minutes the fire brigade was there, with about 50 spectators looking on. No one was injured, but the damage to the building and its contents was estimated more than N$5 million.Müller was already speaking to his insurers when The Namibian approached him for comment.’It’s horrible what happened here, but we are busy assessing the damage now. This of course is not the end of Brauhaus. We’ll build a new restaurant right here again and we’re hoping to have it open within the next three to six months,’ he said.