Pretoria family home destroyed by suspected kitchen fire

A Pretoria family has lost everything after an early morning fire in Doornpoort.

The fire is believed to have started in the kitchen, ripping through the house before leaving nothing but the walls standing. 

First responders on scene

Sinoville Firefighting Association (SBBV) founder Johan Botha said one of their members was travelling to work on the N1 when he noticed a house on fire at around 4.45am on 19 November and immediately reported it to their emergency group.

“Our response team was deployed to the scene immediately and found the house up in flames on arrival,” he said.

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Botha said that when the volunteers arrived on the scene, the fire had spread across the house and was in such an advanced stage that they had to make a call because the house could not be saved at that point.

“The volunteers then contained the fire to prevent it from spreading to the surrounding houses,” he said.

Smoke visible from 4am

Botha says they find it strange that neighbours noticed smoke coming from the house at around 4am, yet nobody phoned the fire brigade.

He said it looked like the fire started in the kitchen where the occupants were busy cooking with gas.

“It looks like they tried to extinguish the fire but failed because it was already too late. Volunteers managed to save the family’s vehicle. By the time they got to the vehicle, the keys started melting inside the ignition,” he added.

Family in need

Botha said the family lost everything.

“They lost everything, only the walls were left after the fire,” he said.

Botha said extinguishing a fire was not as easy as people thought.

“People don’t realise how fire is and how quickly it can start to spread. Typically, a big fire spreads within three minutes across a house, and not even a fire extinguisher can stop or save it,” he said.

The scene was handed over to authorities and the Tshwane Emergency Management Services (EMS) for further investigation.

• This is a developing story.