Mondeor house ruined by fire
The fire had consumed the top of the house in its entirety and majority of the bottom floor was left damaged by the large amount of water flowing down the stairs.
THE Pillay family was left distraught after their Mondeor family home was ruined in a sudden blaze on Tuesday, September 26 at around 7.30am.
Kyasha Pillay stood outside her home in tears, being comforted by family members and surrounded by neighbours as firemen worked tirelessly to salvage the Ormonde Drive home. According to members from the fire department on scene, they were near Mondeor High School when they saw the smoke and rushed to the house.
Kyasha spoke to the CHRONICLE saying that there were sparks and a small fire that had started in the garage in the morning but they put it out before it could escalate. At that time, Kyasha was at home with her two children (aged eight and six), the domestic worker Martha Mabula and one of the tenants, Shannon Prout-Jones.
It is believed a fault in one of the plugs that caused the sparks could have spread to the electric cables on the roof and caused the fire. The second floor of the house was completely ruined.
“The children were a bit shaken up so I took them to my husband’s mother. When I came back it had spread to the top of the house,” said Kyasha.
At this time her husband Angelo Pillay, Shannon Prout-Jones and the other tenant Cortneigh Halim, had already left the house for work and errands.
“My day starts very early and I had left home by about 7am and everything was fine before I left – nothing was wrong,” said Angelo.
“There were some sparks in the garage at about 7.30am but we killed them with the hosepipe and left,” said Shannon.
“There was a small fire but we put it out with buckets of water that we took from the pool. By about 7:45am when I left, everything was fine,” said Cortneigh.
The tenant’s places were not damaged by the fire.
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“Every day when my madam leaves I check if everything is fine and locked – I started with the garage, but today was different. We saw the fire in the morning and we took buckets of water and put it out,” said Martha. At this time Kyasha was taking her children to safety.
“I called not long after madam had left the house and told her that the fire had spread upstairs and she must call the emergency services,” explained Martha.
The CHRONICLE arrived shortly after 8am and by this time the fire had been extinguished. Emergency services were on scene and the Pillay’s were processing how quickly everything happened. The aftermath was disasterous.
The fire had consumed the top of the house in its entirety and most of the bottom floor was left damaged by the large amount of water flowing down the stairs.
The fire department has been contacted for comment and an update will follow as soon as more information is available.
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