Elma Park resident recounts community uniting to fight fire
Without the quick thinking and bravery that many showed this fire may have had a very different outcome.
My evening on July 18 started normally. I arrived home from hockey, and spoke to my family.
ALSO READ: LETTER: ‘What will be the next change in Modderfontein?’
It was a normal evening; right up until my mother got a message on a WhatsApp group about a fire at a property on our road in Elma Park.
When she went outside to check, she saw the smoke and the flames.
It was then that our evening changed.
The road was chaos, packed with cars as people from all over the area swarmed to see what was going on.
As a wall of flames lapped at the bricks of a property on Pierneef Road, the community watched with a mixture of fear and awe.
Adrenaline kicked in, helping some – like my younger brother, who was able to scale our wall, after we had locked ourselves out of our house, to fetch a hose pipe but froze others where they stood.
When an explosion sounded, you could feel the fear and disbelief radiating off the onlookers.
We found, days later, pieces of debris in our garden and on the side of the road.
The slate roof on our house has cracked pieces and the videos we have seen show flaming pieces landing everywhere.
It is honestly a miracle that the fire didn’t spread further than the garage where it started.
If anything good could come out of this terrifying experience, it would be how the community came together.
Neighbours gave up their hose pipes, fire extinguishers and time to bravely help fight the fire while we waited for the arrival of the fire department.
Neighbours, who simply wanted to help, bravely climbed onto the roof of the neighbouring property (my grandparents’ home) with hose pipes to try tame the flames.
The fire was almost out thirty minutes later and there wasn’t much for the firefighters to do.
In the end, the fire only claimed one garage and two cars.
ALSO READ: Letters bring smiles to Ron Smith residents
Without the quick thinking and bravery that many showed this fire may have had a very different outcome.
Thank you, James, Daniel, Sam, Kerry, Jeffrey, neighbours, and the entire Elma Park community who bonded together in a crisis and managed to avert disaster.
Jessica Walsh.
Also follow us on:
   
