A family who lost theirs home to a raging blaze was forced to move into an abandoned tent near their gutted home.
A family who lost theirs home to a raging blaze was forced to move into an abandoned tent near their gutted home.
The family sat despondent in front of what remained of their home in Ethembeni informal settlement on Wednesday 4 March, as they pondered how they were going to move forward from the tragedy that destroyed the home they'd built through sweat and tears.
A visibly emotional Lulama Bisheni, who lost everything in the fire on Saturday 31 March, said she was away from her house, near Benjamin Mahlasela High School, when the fire started.
Standing beside the charred remains of her house, Bisheni said she was the last person to leave the house that day.
Everything had looked normal before she went out with her three children.
Bisheni shared the three-roomed house with her children and her father.
Her brother lives in an outside room on the property.
Bisheni says the fire started at around 6pm on Saturday while she was out with her children.
"I locked the door from the outside and left," she said.
She says her father was home when the fire started.
"He says he started smelling smoke while he was sleeping in his room, which is only separated by a wall from mine," she said.
When her father went to check where the smoke was coming from, he saw flames coming out of her window and immediately kicked in the door, thinking she or her children might be trapped inside.
"He was shouting my name," she said.
The fire was already too big, though, and Bisheni's father couldn't enter the house.
He called the neighbours for help. Soon after, the fire department was called.
"I was already here when the fire department arrived. By that time, the fire had destroyed most of my things," she said.
Bisheni says her father's room escaped damage, but her side of the house was destroyed completely.
She said she didn't know what had caused the fire.
"I had cooked earlier in the day at about 3pm and I made sure that the stove was switched off," Bisheni said.
Assistance was quick to come from local councillor Mncedisi Gojela, who linked her up with several organisations that were only too happy to help.
Bisheni said the Red Cross Society donated two blankets; Makana Municipality donated four mattresses; an unidentified person from Rhodes University donated food; Pick n Pay donated vegetables and South African Social Security Agency asked the family to go to their offices last Friday, according to Bisheni.
Chief of Makana Municipality's Fire Department William Welkom said they received a call about the fire just after 11pm on Saturday.
He said when fire fighters arrived at the scene the house was still on fire.
"All the possessions inside the house were destroyed, but luckily nobody was hurt." Welkom said the fire was extinguished just before midnight.
"At about 12.35am we were just making sure that the fire was completely extinguished," he said.
Speaking to Grocott's Mail yesterday, Bisheni said they are currently living in an abandoned tent near their damaged home.
"The tent does not belong to us. It used to belong to a family which currently lives in a nearby farm," she said.
