MBOMBELA – A man in his late 30s died in his home on Sunday, after setting a part of the house in Steiltes alight in the early hours of the morning.
According to Hi-Tech Security Nelspruit, which was first to arrive at the scene, the man had had an argument with his wife before he locked himself inside the main bedroom and set the entire room on fire with petrol. He then locked himself in the en-suite bathroom.
According to Mr Nico Grobler, operations manager for Hi-Tech, the entire house was filled with smoke when the security company arrived at the scene.
Read: Man sets himself alight after apparent domestic row with wife
The victim’s wife had pressed the panic button. Grobler said they received the call at about 03:00. “Unfortunately when we arrived at the house the man had died of suspected smoke inhalation. He was declared dead on the scene.” One of the next-door neighbours said there was a lot of activity at the house before the incident.
“People were going in and out of the house the whole evening. It looked like they were having a party. “At around midnight I heard people shouting and screaming. It sounded like a fight between a man and a woman. I went outside to see what was going on, but could not see anything. So I went back to bed. “At around 03:00 I heard a loud bang which sounded like an explosion. “When I went outside to see what was going on, I heard a commotion. People next door were crying and screaming.
“I went closer to the boundary wall. I saw that a part of the house was burning and windows were smashed. Emergency services and security personnel were already on the scene.” The witness said he had heard what sounded like four gunshots, but Grobler said they suspect what he heard was in fact the security workers breaking down the bathroom door to get to the victim. He added that three adults had been rescued from the house. They were unharmed. Mbombela police spokesman, Capt Dawie Pretorius said the police investigation was continuing. “We have opened an inquest docket.
We are also talking to eyewitnesses and still conducting a post-mortem to determine the cause of death. “However, we are not going to make the results available to the public,” Pretorius concluded.
