Electrical fire razes down five shacks

There were no fatalities or serious injuries when a mid-day fire razed down five shacks at the corner of 14th Avenue and Josias Madzunya Street.

Only minor injuries to one of the shack owners were reported and he is said to have sustained those while trying to put down the inferno together with many other residents who had answered a cry for help from the victims.

Ntombi Mthinti (29) said the fire broke out at about 1:15pm when she arrived back home from a shopping stint at the Pan Africa Mall.

“I got home and just as I put down the items I had bought, I heard a loud explosion in the adjacent shack and I ran to trip down my main switch and the next thing I saw was smoke coming from one of the shacks.

“I got out and screamed for help and many of the male residents of the stand came out with buckets full of water to help extinguish the fire but it quickly got out of hand and caught on to four other adjacent shacks,” she said.

Mthinti said she suspected an appliance that was left connected to have exploded when power was restored. The area had been without power for a couple of hours since the morning.

“I suspect a surge might have caused the explosion and subsequent fire,” she told Alex News.

Mthinto and her other shack owners lost everything, clothes, food, furniture, electrical appliances, bed, blankets and some their identity documents.

“I am [left] as you see me now, only with what I am wearing. I have lost everything that I have worked so hard for, for the past I don’t know how many years. It all perished in just a few minutes of the fire,” she said.

Another resident who has no place to sleep tonight, Xolani Mabaso, who also lost his possessions except for his identity document and his car papers hidden where the fire did not reach, said had the Emergency Management Services responded timeously, some of their belongings could have been saved.

“We appeal for any kind of assistance and in whatever format it may come, just to alleviate our pain and ensure that it gives us a kick-start towards rebuilding our lives,” he said, shrugging tears as he pointed out to his appliance, beds, blankets and all his other items consumed by the fire.

Owner of the main house, Samuel Gumede (49) said he nearly collapsed when he arrived to find the main house had also caught fire.

“I thought of all the renovations I had just done to my kitchen, bedroom and living rooms and ran short of a heart attack,” he said.