Part of the Bundu Country Lodge near Nelspruit in Mpumalanga has been damaged by fire caused by lightning.
The lodge’s owner‚ Willem Janson‚ said damage to the luxury lodge was “quite extensive” but none of the guests or staff was harmed.
“The fire destroyed the top floor. Luckily it didn’t spread but we had to fight hard to contain it. The lightning struck at around 5pm on Saturday sparking the fire and we had to fight until midnight to contain it‚” Janson said.
“It was quite a bad storm with a lot of lightning.”
Fortunately the roof was tiled and not thatch otherwise the damage could have been far worse‚ he added.
A total of eight rooms were totally destroyed while a few others were damaged but could be restored‚ Janson said‚ pointing out that the lodge still had more than 100 other rooms.
“So it’s still business as usual. We won’t have to cancel any bookings‚” he added.