An Eluxolweni family lost an estimated R50 000 worth of goods and furniture after a fire erupted in the living room where a paraffin heater had been lit.
An Eluxolweni family lost an estimated R50 000 worth of goods and furniture after a fire erupted in the living room where a paraffin heater had been lit.
Phumza Mesani said that late on Sunday night the family was woken up by the screams of her husband because he was burning. "We screamed and called for help from the neighbours," she said. Her husband, Mzukisi Mdiza suffered third degree burns on his upper body including his face, arms neck and head.
He is slowly recovering at Settler’s Hospital where he was rushed after the neighbours had managed to kill the blaze. The door which leads to the living room has burnt down completely as well as the window next to it. The sofa on which Mdiza was sitting while watching TV when the fire erupted has been reduced to ashes.
Other goods which caught alight include new blankets which were still in their original packaging, two television sets, a home theatre system, a VCR recorder, curtains, an electric kettle and the electricity metre box.The walls of the open plan house are pitch black from the smoke. Mesani estimated that the entire damages suffered by the family being around R50 000 and noted that the family did not alert the police.
With the help of their neighbours, the family were busy removing the debris from the house for the major part of yesterday. "I am saddened with what happened especially because our children saw for the first time their father catching alight and screaming in agony as he was trying to take off his clothes," says his distraught wife.
Speaking to Grocott’s Mail from his hospital bed, Mdiza said that his left arm is completely burnt out and that doctors say he will be spend the whole week in hospital. "The doctors don’t believe that a heater could be the cause of damage of this extent and I think they have a point," he said. He added that members of the previous Eluxolweni area committee which was dissolved last month had threatened him and alleged that they could have resorted to arson.
Mdiza was instrumental in the dissolution of the previous committee which was marred with allegations of selling building materials meant for the ongoing RDP housing developments in the area. He is the new committee’s vice chairperson. Mdiza’s next door neighbour Boyce Nelani agrees, saying that the blaze was not an accident and that the "people who were behind illegal sale of RDP houses" in the area are to blame.
"Last week they threatened to organise a witchdoctor for me and Mdiza because we exposed their criminal activities," he added.
