Jesus Dome Fire: "It is heart-wrenching to see how this place has just come down."
UPDATE: The fire at the Durban Christian Centre has been extinguished. Durban firefighters and other emergency services have spent over two hours battling a massive fire at one of Durban's landmarks.
The fire at the Durban Christian Centre, popularly known as the Jesus Dome, started shortly before 6pm with eyewitnesses describing huge flames and smoke billowing high into the sky.
Photographer and former TV producer at the DCC, Andreas Mattios says the fire is a hard pill to swallow.
WATCH: Massive fire engulfs Durban Christian Centre
Speaking to Newswatch from the scene, he's likened the inferno to the collapse of the twin towers.
"The closest comparison I can make to what I am looking at right in front of me right now - is it looks lie the twin towers have come down all over again. I am looking at a decimated Jesus Dome where the wrangled damage to the infrastructure has brought the aluminium roof crashing to the ground.
"It's basically destroyed the whole infrastructure inside the dome, right up to the back where my old offices used to be - the TV ministry that we started in 2004. It's just heart-wrenching to see how this place has just come down," Mathios said.
Mathios says the church has been around for a long time.
"A lot of people know about the Jesus Dome. You drive past it every morning on the N3 as you go past Mayville in and out of Durban. It's also the second-biggest aluminium structure in Southern Hemisphere, so to see it come down like this is absolutely heart-wrenching. But to see the community standing on the side of the road, watching the building burn is encouraging because it just goes to show the community are standing behind the church," he added.
Mathios says when he arrived on the scene, some of his former colleagues were trying to salvage as much as possible from the church as the fire raged.
As he was speaking to Newswatch, he witnessed some of them gathering at the front entrance to pray, led by the DCC's Pastor Fred.
Meanwhile, Rescue Care's Garrith Jamieson says everyone is accounted for and there are no injuries reported.
"The dome is well alight. We have numerous firefighters trying to battle this blaze and they seem to be winning slowly. It is a massive fire," he said.
Jamieson also said there was a bit of traffic on the N3 due to rubber-necking. Although investigations into the actual cause of the fire will begin as soon as it is safe to do so, there are unconfirmed reports of an electrical fire that started in the church.
See pictures shared by East Coast Radio listeners below -
(Photo by Andreas Mathios)
(Photo by Pam Subramoney)
(Photo by Claudia Pillay)
(Photo by Ashie Thulasee taken from Berriedale Court)
(Photo by Kvassan Dhanapalan)
(Photo by Veronique Jonas)
(Videos taken by Shanav Govender, Sanda Rutherford and Calvin Human)