Family devastated by man’s death in fire

The family of a 51-year-old Mamelodi man are devastated after a fire claimed his life last week.

Daniel Maseko from Mamelodi West, section A3, died a day after his body was badly burned in his room last Thursday.

Sister, Portia Maseko (44) said the family were pinning the blame on intermittent loadshedding because her brother’s death could seemingly be linked to a candle which caused his room to burn.

“My brother died after he left a candle unattended when falling asleep in the evening while waiting for electricity to come back during a bout of loadshedding,” said Maseko.

She said she was at church that evening when her brother’s room caught fire.

“The neighbours later told me my three-year-old daughter saw fire coming out her uncle’s room and called out for help.

“Nobody knows what really happened, but the candle that he lit might be the cause of fire since there was no electricity at the time.”

Maseko said the neighbours tried in vain to put the fire out using buckets of water.

“Luckily only my brother’s backyard room caught fire but everything inside was destroyed.

“They later managed to open the room to free my brother,” said Maseko.

“By that time he was already badly burned and fighting for his life.”

ALSO READ: Hefty sentence to murder accused

She further said the ambulance arrived an hour later and took him to a nearby hospital where he died of his wounds the following day.

Maseko said the family didn’t know where to go from here as they were struggling financially and weren’t able to bury Daniel.

“No one in our family is working. We would welcome any help to bury my brother on Saturday.”

Do you have more information about the story?

Please send us an email to editorial@rekord.co.za or phone us on 083 625 4114.

For free breaking and community news, visit Rekord’s websites: Rekord East

For more news and interesting articles, like Rekord on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or Instagram