Neighbour heroes save Empangeni family from house fire

AN Empangeni family had a close call with a house fire over the weekend, which was quickly contained with help from their neighbours.

Phakamani Mabaso (53) recalls that his family was alerted to something burning at around 8.30pm on Saturday.

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His wife, Ziphozethu Mabaso (50), smelt something burning, but couldn’t find what it was.

“…but we couldn’t see it. We switched off the lights. There was no flame, then suddenly there were flames coming from the ceiling,” said Phakamani.

“We threw a bucket and another one. We screamed for help and the neighbours came. They responded very fast,” he said.

“Without them…,” said Ziphozethu who trailed off, with her young daughter Sethu (9) standing close beside her. “Fortunately we were not sleeping. I don’t even want to think about it.”

Next door neighbour, Johan Horn, was relaxing at home with his family playing cards when he heard Sethu’s call for help.

“I heard a small child shout, ‘Please help us!’ So I ran to the stoep assuming someone was attacking them, but their house was on fire.”

He jumped over the wall and discovered their geyser had burst, which was leaking onto electrical wires.

“I told them the first thing was to switch off their power. The family was frantic and rushing left to right. Phakamani told me afterwards that he’s so glad someone came to keep him level-headed.”

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Johan’s brother Ferdinand Horn and nephew Juan de Kock also rushed to help. Johan tried to use a hosepipe, but the water was just trickling.

“Someone gave me a full bottle of water and I was standing in the dining room, just throwing. It doused 80 per cent of the fire.”

The Empangeni Fire Department arrived shortly after the blaze was contained, assessing that there was no further risk.

However, the miracle of the story is that the neighbours weren’t even meant to be home.

Ferdinand was visiting from France and Juan was visiting from Johannesburg.

“We were supposed to be on a church camp this weekend, but everything was blocking us to go – we think this was the reason.”

“We are grateful to our neighbours, we really appreciate their help,” said Phakamani.

In case of any fire emergencies, contact the Empangeni Fire Department on 035 9075723.

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