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The fire at the KWV bottling and production plant in Southern Paarl has been contained.

This morning between 06:30 and 07:00 a fire broke out in the KWV production facility in Paarl. “Authorities and support services acted swiftly and the fire was brought under control,” said KWV CEO Boyce Lloyd.

A KWV employee, a service provider and municipal firefighter have been admitted to hospital for smoke inhalation and are in a stable condition. Four KWV employees were treated on site for minor smoke inhalation. The building consists of three adjacent stores.

A Drakenstein municipality spokesperson said that 48 firefighters, several officers and 14 firefighting vehicles were on the scene.

Firefighters managed to prevent the flames from damaging tanks that store about 90 000 litres of brandy.

The damage was contained to parts of the bottling and packaging infrastructure. Lloyd said that KWV’s capability to bottle certain brands will thus temporarily be impacted. “We are currently compiling contingency plans with various service providers and related industries to assist with bottling services of those products impacted. Blending operations, full goods warehousing, logistical and related distribution operations are thankfully unaffected.”

Lloyd added that KWV is thankful for the quick and efficient response by various emergency and supplier services and more importantly, that no lives were lost.

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