Fire destroys home, family loses almost everything
Three computers almost all recovered
Tyrone Parsons (22) quietly walked through the ruins of his home this morning (June 20).
He returned to his Lakefield residence for the first time today, hours after it burnt down.
Parsons made his way through the house, room-by-room, thinking of what has been lost.
Two laptops and a desktop computer were salvaged while the fire raged on at the Strathford Avenue property.
The inferno claimed his cell phone, clothes and music equipment (which he values at R100 000), to name only a few items.
The youngster’s parents’ home caught alight at around 5pm yesterday afternoon.
Parsons said he told his family to get out of the house shortly after the fire started.
He then bravely venture back inside, to save the computers from destruction, in order for his father, Grant, to continue working the following day.
The 22-year-old broke off a window’s burglar bars and retrieved the computers.
He said he was in the house for about 10 minutes while the fire raged on, and had flames above and beside him.
”I just wanted to ensure my dad’s business could run the next day,” said Parsons at his home, this morning.
”I wanted to ensure my dad’s livelihood was safe.”
A family friend of the Parsons, Karin Botha, said the fire apparently started when a pipe feeding from a heater to the gas bottle came loose.
Botha said emergency services took about 40 minutes to respond to the call – apparently because the fire engine was too big to enter the closure -and a further 40 to start extinguishing the blaze.
In this time, she said, people in the vicinity were “fantastic”.
She said the neighbours arrived with blankets and coffee, and offered their homes as shelter to the homeless family.
Botha thanked everyone who helped.
A spokesperson for ER24 JHB East said no injuries were sustained as a result of the fire.
The City Times sent questions regarding the fire to the Ekurhuleni Emergency Services, this morning, but is still awaiting comment.
