Maile visits family of five people who perished in house fire
"One of the preliminary observations is that the walls of the house were not built in a way that could separate the rooms of the house."
The Gauteng government has offered condolences and support to the family of five people who died in a house fire in Mount Anderson Street in Kirkney, Pretoria West this week.
Local goverment MEC, Lebogang Maile, visited the families on Thursday morning.
Four siblings aged 6, 18, 22 and 24 and a domestic worker (46) lost their lives in the fire on Wednesday morning.
A mother (45) and her toddler (3) managed to escape the fire with minor injuries.
Maile said they had heard the plea of the families regarding the burial of their loved. Help will be offered to bury the deceased.
He said one of the preliminary observations was that the walls of the house were not built in a way that could separate the rooms of the house.
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“This is why it was easy for the fire to reach to the other rooms. These are preliminary observations based on what the professionals have seen.”
Asked if load-shedding might have played a part in the incident, Maile said they did not want to speculate about what the cause of the fire was.
“At this point, we want to support the families that are grieving and to give the deceased a well deserved sending off.”
A family member of the four siblings, Kwena Dladla said the whole family has been traumatised by what happened to their loved ones.
“It is very painful because we did not expect this.”
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Dladla said the mother who survived the fire was not doing well but she was receiving the necessary care and treatment.
A family member of the domestic worker Victor Mpheme said the family only found out that their loved one had lost her life on Wednesday afternoon.
“We feel very bad about what happened, we only found out some time after the incident happened.”
Mpheme said the domestic worker is survived by her three children, two boys and one girl.
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