CAPE TOWN - Residents are reeling in shock after a fire engulfed a home during the early hours of Tuesday, claiming the lives of everyone in the household.
Residents watched in horror as the bodies of four people were removed from the informal structure on Elizabeth Street in Kalkfontein, Kuilsriver, a suburb located in the northern part of the city. The youngest victim was two years old.
A neighbour who witnessed the incident, Stanton Wagenaar said he heard screaming and as he looked out from his window he saw fire.
“We just saw the flames. I told my brother to get up and help in trying to extinguish the fire with water and sand. We just wanted to help, but there was too little water," Wagenaar said.
“Fire and rescue had to come earlier. When they came it was too late. It’s just so tragic."
A family was killed in a devastating blaze in Kalkfontein in the early hours of June 2. Photo: Brendan Magaar/African News Agency (ANA)
A family was killed in a devastating blaze in Kalkfontein in the early hours of June 2. Photo: Brendan Magaar/African News Agency (ANA)
A relative of the deceased family, Ferenscia Peterson said forensic pathologists on the scene were still looking for the limbs of some of the deceased.
“As far as we know the fire took place in the structure and we’re not sure if the cause of the fire is a short-circuit or not,” Peterson said.
Cape Town Fire and Rescue Services spokesman Jermaine Carelse said: “A family was killed in a devastating blaze in Kalkfontein in the early hours of this morning ... A man, woman and two girls aged 2 and 10 were trapped in the informal structure when the City’s Fire and Rescue Services arrived on the scene.,"
Carelse said the rescue team was alerted to the fire at 3.10am.
“Despite the valiant efforts of fire crews to contain the blaze to a single structure, the man, woman and their two daughters could not be saved. The fire was extinguished at 3.55am and the scene was handed over to the SAPS forensics department,” Carelse said.
Ferenscia Peterson, a relative of the family that died in the fire in Kalkfontein Kuilsriver in the early hours of this morning.
VIDEO: Brendan Magaar/African News Agency.
Neighbour, Stanton Wagenaar explains what he witnessed when the Kalkfontein family died in the blaze.
Video: Brendan Magaar