Generator explodes during blackout
A generator exploded at the home of Joan Botha and Alta Myburg, at 9pm, on Tuesday, April 14
The two sisters had been sitting in their lounge at 158 Pretoria Road, Rynfield, when the power went off, after which they switched on the generator in the wendy house outside.
When they started hearing strange noises being made by the generator, which is only three months old, Myburg went outside to have a look.
She saw the wendy house in flames, but they didn’t want to approach, in fear of it exploding — which it did.
“I told my sister we shouldn’t go closer; right after that it exploded in the wendy house,” said Myburg.
They called the fire department, but a truck arrived only an hour later, citing the power outage as the reason.
“The fire station is just up the road from us, but they said they couldn’t open the doors because of load shedding,” said Botha.
“When they got here, they didn’t have the proper equipment, like flashlights, ladders, a hose, or water.”
Several minutes later, a larger truck arrived on scene, with all the necessary equipment, but couldn’t fit through the entrance to the yard, to get close enough to the fire.
“We and our neighbours were using our garden hoses to try to control the fire, because the fire brigade couldn’t get their fire hose close enough,” said Myburg.
“The flames were incredibly high and even burned a hole in the roof of the house, because the wendy house was right next to it.”
According to Myburg, the fire brigade sent another large fire truck, which could connect its hose with that of the other truck, after which they finished putting out the fire.
The entire wendy house burned down and the house suffered some minor damage.
Nobody was injured by the fire, though Joan was taken to the Linmed Hospital, to be treated for shock.
The Ekurhuleni Emergency Management Services (EMS) was approached for comment, but none had been received at the time of going to press.
