A family residing in Miederpark was devasted to see their home engulfed in flames.
According to Huldie Swart around midnight on Wednesday (9 September) her 11-year-old daughter, Mienke Swart, went to their bedroom and complained about feeling nauseous. She got into the bed with her parents and about five minutes later, they heard a loud bang.
“My husband (Chris Swart) opened the bedroom and saw smoke” said Huldie.
According to her, the smoke came from Mienke’s room so Chris started calling out her name but he realised that she was with them.
Chris then called their 15-year-old son, CW and he ran down the passage to his parents’ room. Although panicked, the family managed to escape the flames through the sliding door of the main bedroom. Chris tried to extinguish the fire with a hosepipe but the flames were too strong. Mooirivier Besekerming reacted after the alarm of the house went off. They called the family and contacted the fire brigade.
While the children were safely outside, Chris and Huldie managed to go back into the house to grab their wallets and car keys. She explained that everything happened so quickly that there wasn’t time to grab anything else. Fortunately, the family sustained no injuries but their two dogs, Renaldo and Jessie, were lost in the fire. “We called them but they never came out. The flames were too severe, we couldn’t go back,” says Huldie. The cause of the fire is still unknown.
The Swart family would like to thank the community, the Mooirivier Besekerming, the fire brigade, and the children’s schools for their assistance and support.
