The update can be found at the bottom of the story…

The iconic Fireman’s Arms (or Firemans Arms, depending on who you ask), established back in 1864, is one of Cape Town’s oldest and most revered pubs.

Sadly, for those who loved to swing past Buitengracht Street in central Cape Town after work for a pint or three, video footage taken in the early hours of this morning shows the pub’s beer garden engulfed in flames.

Facebook user Dean Ryan posted the video below, stating that it was filmed just before 3AM.

As you can see, there are flames everywhere:

The same post also included this image:

Instagram user rezar.life uploaded these two videos, shot from above:

 

View this post on Instagram

 

😐 #firemansarms #thefiremansarms

A post shared by Hamid Reza (@rezar.life) on Nov 20, 2019 at 5:36pm PST

Twitter user @jetmoses21 shared these images just before 8AM, showing severe damage to the outside area:

According to one of the pub’s owners, Kevin Phelan, who said there was an electrical fire in the bar outside, the damage was limited to the beer garden.

Another of the owners, Dean Kadir, spoke with TimesLIVE:

“By the look of it, it is electrical,” he said. “Our beer garden is completely gone. The inside, fortunately, only received smoke damage. The inside is where you find the historical value.”

He said the show would go on and that “hopefully, one of the bars will be up and running” by the weekend.

He added that stalwarts Sesame and Babelas, two cats often found sleeping at the pub, were safe.

This image, shared by Twitter user @Gazareth_D, shows how the interior part of the building remained intact:

The fact that the venue could be open this weekend is great news.

UPDATE: Here’s the statement via the pub itself:

[source:timeslive]