WATCH: Birchleigh house apparently set alight by man whose advances were refused

A destitute Birchleigh woman and her nephew are once again homeless after a man allegedly set alight the abandoned home in which they were living on Baobab Street on Thursday afternoon last week.

The 40-year-old woman, who wished to remain anonymous for safety reasons, claimed he did so after she rejected his advances.

“Two days after I moved into the house in January, a man in his 30s arrived, claiming he knew the house well and would help me restore it,” the 40-year-old woman, who suffers from leukemia, told Express.

According to her, part of the house was already burned down when she moved in, except for the two back rooms where she and her 19-year-old nephew were living.

Capt Lesibana Molokomme, spokesperson for Norkem Park SAPS, told Express the owners of the house were unknown and police were trying to trace them.

“He became obsessed with me and threatened me for weeks,” the woman said about the man, fighting back tears and clearly traumatised. “I trusted him; I thought he was a friend.”

The woman claimed he locked her and her nephew inside the house at around 3pm and set the house on fire.

“Luckily, a friend was on her way to the house and managed to let us out. When I escaped, he chased me with a panga and said ‘I’ll be back’.”

Smart Security reaction officers Izak Weideman and Harry Zietsman arrived on scene first, shortly after 3pm, and tried to extinguish the fire as best they could. By this time, the man who allegedly started the fire, was no longer on scene.

The City of Ekurhuleni Disaster and Emergency Management Services’ spokesperson, William Ntladi, told Express a fire team managed to contain and extinguish the fire when they arrived.

“Unfortunately, the roof had already collapsed on arrival, but no one was injured,” Ntladi said, adding the cause of the fire was still under investigation.

According to Molokomme, a case had not yet been opened following the incident.