A fireman was injured when he fell from a ladder while fire crews from Nadi Town and Nadi Airport fought the blaze at a five-flat Housing Authority building in Votualevu, an article published by The Fiji Times on Monday, December 7, 1981 said.
By the time firefighters contained the fire, two apartments had been destroyed. It was reported that Isireli Qalo, the injured firefighter, suffered a broken arm.
As flames shot over the five-flat, two-storey block of apartments which was close to the Mocambo Hotel, residents hurried to assist the affected five families in rescuing furniture and personal items.
However, two of the apartments were converted to burned shells by the fire, leaving little to be salvaged.
There was one empty flat in the building. The top level of one of the apartments was where the fire was said to have originated.
The Fiji Times reported that before the fire department arrived, the flames had already spread through the ceiling and into the nearby apartments.
First on the scene was the fire tender from Nadi Airport.
The town-based Nadi Brigade trailed behind it.
A co-ordinating cook for Air Terminal Services (Fiji) Ltd, Metuisela Vosayaco, and his family were living in the unit where the fire originated. When the fire broke out, he was at work.
Mrs Lora Vosayaco, his spouse, said she was in the bathroom when the fire broke out.
“I told the kids to go upstairs and change, but they could not go up because of the smoke from the fire,” she said.
“They rushed out to me and said the house was on fire. When I came out of the bathroom the whole house was in flames.”
With six children ranging in age from four to 12, as well as a three-year-old nephew, Mrs Vosayaco said she was unable to rescue anything from their possessions.
She said her only concern was the safety of her children.
