‘He went back for his bakkie’
The veld fire spread very quickly to burn down the house in Hilltop.
MBOMBELA – The body of Christiaan Marthinus de Beer (80) was discovered next to his bakkie on Wednesday afternoon. He was the only known victim of the numerous fires which had been raging in the Lowveld since that morning.
As fire season reached its peak this week, a number of farms and plantations in the Lowveld continued to smoulder as the newspaper went to press.
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Tersia Marshall, the councillor for Ward 15 said De Beer lived in a flat on top of the garage. He rented out the main house.
His body had been removed from the scene by the time she arrived.
When the eyewitness saw the house catching fire, he helped De Beer out of the building.
But De Beer went back in. It was assumed he wanted to retrieve his bakkie from the garage.
They found him collapsed next to his vehicle. Paramedics on the scene suspect he died of smoke inhalation.
Jack Basson and his wife had been renting from De Beer for eight years.
Basson told Lowvelder that he got a call from De Beer shortly after 13:00, saying the house was on fire and that he would try to extinguish the flames, but it did not seem likely as the water pressure in the hose was weak and the wind incredibly strong.
Basson phoned the fire department and finished up at work.
Basson added that they have been overwhelmed by offers of help from the community.
His wife’s employer booked them into a guest house for a month, until they can get back on their feet and loaned them money for clothes.
“You can imagine, all we have left are the clothes we were wearing,” he said.
Provincial Disaster Management warned that extremely high fire dangers were expected and that these were conducive to the spread of wildfires.
Communities were warned not to start fires.
The burning of firebreaks was also suspended across Mpumalanga and all burning permits suspended.
It noted that all fire stations and the fire protection association had been placed on high alert.
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