Fire destroyed the Rissik Street Post Office just days before a scheduled meeting to look into tenders for its redevelopment.

THERE are several ironies to the destruction of the Rissik Street Post Office by fire this week. Perhaps the greatest is that its neighbour, the Barbican, is finally being restored after being neglected for 13 years.

The floors above collapsed on to the ground floor, leaving just the walls standing

Although several proposals for it have been received over the years, the building has steadily deteriorated, mainly the result of vandalism. On a visit to the building in August, as part of a tender process, extensive damage was evident – wooden floors had been ripped up, stairway banisters were missing, ceilings were collapsing, and doors had disappeared.

The historic post office is the second to oldest building in the inner city, dating back 112 years to 1897. It was declared a national monument or heritage site in 1978. The Barbican was completed in 1931, while the City Hall, the third building in the triangle that makes up these three grand structures, was built in 1915.

So with the destructive fire - all the floors have gone, just the basic structure remains - the most historic building in Johannesburg is possibly going to be demolished.

"I am very shocked and saddened," says Eric Itzkin, the deputy director of immovable heritage in the City.

The fire is reminiscent of the blaze that resulted in the almost total demolition of the Drill Hall in 2002, where five people lost their lives. That site was subsequently redeveloped and has become a community-based arts and cultural centre.

Another irony is that two days after the destructive fire, the Johannesburg Property Company (JPC), the custodian of all City buildings, is holding a tender meeting in which it will be considering the two tenders received when it issued a call for proposals in August and September, for the redevelopment of the building.

The Rissik Street Post Office is owned by the City of Johannesburg.

Two tenders were received, says Kuluwa Muthwa, the manager of transformation and capital projects at the JPC. Both were from private companies, although for several years the Gauteng provincial government was interested in turning the post office into offices, to complement its acquisition of the City Hall in 2003.

The back of the building, showing the damage to the clock tower

The post office was designed by President Paul Kruger's architect, Sytze Wierda, and is the only example of his work in the city. He also designed two buildings in Pretoria's Church Square - the Raadsaal (1890) and the Palace of Justice (1897). Both still stand in the square, a grand and stately reminder of another era.

EMS on the scene
Emergence management services (EMS) spokesperson Nana Radebe says that firefighters got to the scene of the fire on Sunday evening, 1 November, at 10pm. "We could see the blaze on the third floor. An hour later the third floor collapsed."

When she arrived there were seven fire engines and some 30 firefighters already there. The EMS received the first call at 8.50pm and at 8.59pm the first engine arrived at the blaze. She says that at 11pm the roof fell in. "It made a helluva noise, but the walls are still standing."

Radebe indicates that firefighters could not enter the building because of the danger of walls collapsing on them.

The fire had been brought under control by 4am on Monday morning, when the firefighters left. But they returned again at 6am to damp down the building, which was built with wooden floors and wooden window frames.

At 9.30am on Tuesday morning, 3 November, two fire engines were again on the scene, damping down a smouldering fire on the third floor.

Reaction
"The City must restore the property," says Flo Bird, the chairperson of the Parktown and Westcliff Heritage Trust. "If the Russians could restore St Petersburg after the Germans had bombed most of it, then the City of Johannesburg can restore the post office."

Conservation architect Henry Paine also feels strongly about the destructive fire: "It is a disgrace," he says.

A risk assessor on the scene on Tuesday morning said he suspected the fire was started by people taking shelter in the building on a cold Sunday night. He alleges that they probably made a small fire inside, which then spread quickly to the rest of the building. He questions whether there was security personnel on duty on Sunday night.

"An initial assessment of the damage and cause of the fire is currently being undertaken by the emergency management services. This will be followed by a detailed investigation into the cause of the fire," says Nthatisi Modingoane, the deputy director of communications for the City.

He adds that the JPC will undertake a thorough engineers' assessment. "Such an assessment will enable the JPC to take the required steps to stabilise the structure and the remaining walls and to address possible safety risks."

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