A house in Zola 2 caught alight last week Wednesday and it is not clear as to what may have started the fire.
Most of the rooms in the house were affected and Harold ‘Brah Oupa’ Mathebula (70) was injured and hospitalised with third-degree burns. Brah Oupa later died last Monday.
“At around 10 pm on Wednesday, we went out to see what was happening because we heard screaming and when we got closer to the house we realised that it was on fire.
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“I then called other residents and asked some guys from our street to jump over the gate because it was locked when we tried opening it.
“When they entered the yard, they found locked doors locked and had no other choice but to kick down the door and tried helping them.
“I heard Brah Oupa was burnt so badly that he couldn’t run away and apparently the globe holder in his room may have had a problem thus forcing them to use a candle.
“Granpa must have knocked over a candle with his blanket, resulting in a fire, but we don’t know,” Ntombizodwa Sikhosana said.
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“I took a candle, lit it and gave Mkhulu his meds and then I went out to the other room. After some time felt like I was falling asleep so I decided to wake up so that I could go check on Mkhulu.
“To my shock, I found that the house was on fire. I panicked and I didn’t even think of opening the door, so I screamed out for help through the window and that’s when people came and knocked the door down and managed to help.
“I’m pained about what happened because I was responsible for the old man,” said Rilebuhile Monyatsi, a helper at the house.
