{"id":82596,"date":"2018-07-03T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-07-03T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mobserver.co.za\/82596\/video-how-did-little-elephant-fire-start\/"},"modified":"2018-07-04T12:51:57","modified_gmt":"2018-07-04T10:51:57","slug":"video-how-did-little-elephant-fire-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/news-headlines\/2018\/07\/03\/video-how-did-little-elephant-fire-start\/","title":{"rendered":"VIDEO: How did Little Elephant fire start?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Shocked shopkeepers arrived on the scene to <a href=\"https:\/\/citizen.co.za\/news\/south-africa\/1968729\/fire-destroys-little-elephant-tourist-centre-in-middelburg\/\" target=\"_blank\">find their livelihood destroyed<\/a>. Firemen attempted to salvage what they could, by carrying it out of smoldering buildings before the fire got to it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Watch:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/mobserver.co.za\/82550\/photos-video-fire-destroys-little-elephant\/\" target=\"_blank\">Photos and videos of fire at Little Ellephant<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Phineas Makwana, who draws building plans and is an artist, was stunned as he looked at the smouldering rubble where his shop used to be. He has been working at Little Elephant for the past 16 years.<\/p>\n<p>Established in 2000, the\u00a0Little Elephant Ndlovu Encane Craft Market, next to Midway Inn Hotel in Middelburg, used to be a hustle and bustle of activity.<\/p>\n<p>Watch the video of what he thinks started the fire:<\/p>\n<div class='tie-fluid-width-video-wrapper tie-ignore-fitvid' style='margin-bottom: 30px;'>\n\t\t\t<iframe style='width: 100%; min-height: 300px; aspect-ratio: 16\/9;' src='https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/IKrd6hcG7rs' loading='lazy'><\/iframe>\n\t\t<\/div>\n<p>John Shongwe\u2019s wife ran a catering business from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tripadvisor.co.za\/Attraction_Review-g1165248-d2632435-Reviews-Little_Elephant_Market-Middelburg_Mpumalanga.html\" target=\"_blank\">Little Elephant<\/a>. She is currently in Bronkhorstpruit and John rushed to the scene when he learned of the fire.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/mobserver.co.za\/74413\/botshabelo-ruins-results-tourism-slump\/\" target=\"_blank\">Botshabelo ruins results in tourism slump<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Mr Shongwe suspects fowl play.<\/p>\n<p>Watch a video of what Mr Shongwe says here:<\/p>\n<div class='tie-fluid-width-video-wrapper tie-ignore-fitvid' style='margin-bottom: 30px;'>\n\t\t\t<iframe style='width: 100%; min-height: 300px; aspect-ratio: 16\/9;' src='https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/J8UiyDTxGLo' loading='lazy'><\/iframe>\n\t\t<\/div>\n<p>A woman burst into tears when she saw her work laying on the muddy grass in front of her shop. She was too distraught to talk to <strong>www.mobserver.co.za<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<h3>Other News:<\/h3>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/mobserver.co.za\/82525\/warning-graphic-content-horrific-r555-accident-claims-lives\/\" target=\"_blank\">Horrific R555 accident claims lives<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/mobserver.co.za\/82542\/grond-die-soeklig\/\" target=\"_blank\">Grond in die soeklig<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/mobserver.co.za\/82533\/hendrina-water-woes\/\" target=\"_blank\">Hendrina water woes<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/mobserver.co.za\/82547\/manne-wat-met-prostese-stap-hier\/\" target=\"_blank\">Manne wat met prostese stap is hier<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/mobserver.co.za\/82482\/eight-injured-taxi-collision\/\" target=\"_blank\">Eight injured in taxi collision<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Want breaking news on the go?<\/h3>\n<p>\u2022 Save our standby number (072 248 3855) and send us a WhatsApp message with the words \u201cAdd me\u201d to be added to our broadcast list.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Like us on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MiddelburgObserver\/\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook<\/a>, follow us on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MOBSERV\" target=\"_blank\">Twitter<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/mobserver\/?hl=en\" target=\"_blank\">Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Subscribe to our\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCs1fP1J8BpepNwIfk2qeVkQ\" target=\"_blank\">YouTube channel<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h3>Have a news tip?<\/h3>\n<p>Contact our news room on our 24 hr standby number\u00a0072 248 3855, or send a mail to our editor\u00a0<a href=\"mailto:tobie@mobserver.co.za\" target=\"_blank\">tobie@mobserver.co.za<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Little Elephant was almost completely destroyed in a fire on Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1848,"featured_media":82562,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"hasGravity":false,"cxt_article_byline":"Jana Boshoff","cxt_disable_google_ads":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,2],"tags":[12150,12132,1438,12151,1329,3007,12133,8609,10010,21966,10333],"class_list":["post-82596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news-headlines","tag-brand-by-midway","tag-brand-in-middelburg","tag-fire","tag-fire-at-midway","tag-fire-brigade","tag-fire-department","tag-fire-in-middelburg","tag-little-elephant","tag-local-news","tag-middelburg","tag-trusted-news"],"category_labels":{"Category":"News","SubCategory":"Local news"},"tag_labels":["brand by midway","brand in middelburg","fire","fire at midway","fire brigade","fire department","fire in middelburg","little elephant","local news","middelburg","trusted news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1848"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82596\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}