A sombre mood was almost palpable in Kariba Court, Hanover Park, yesterday after two young boys and their grandmother were killed in a fire on Saturday.
Yvonne, 57, Jaden, 2, and Jordan Briqwa, 3, died in the fire.
Theresa Booysen, a neighbour living one flight up from the home ravaged by flames, was still being treated for smoke inhalation yesterday at Heideveld Hospital.
Booysen, who is also trained in basic fire fighting and first aid, tried to rescue the children and their grandmother.
The toddlers’ heartbroken mother, Gwendoline Briqwa, said: “When the fire occurred, I wasn’t at home. I was in Khayelitsha at my boyfriend’s place. When I got a call that the house (was) burning, I came immediately but by the time I got here the fire was almost completely extinguished,” she said.
Briqwa spoke to the Cape Times from her neighbour’s home after access to her family’s house was restricted. She said she was left with her eldest daughter, Nicole, 16, and the father of the toddlers, Ayanda Tame.
“We do not know how the fire started and nobody can tell us.
“ When the fire broke out, residents helped extinguish the fire and by the time the fire brigade arrived, my mother couldn’t get out, they were trapped inside because the gate was also locked and that made it even more difficult for them to get out.
“My daughter was outside at the time the fire started,” she said, adding that they would now live in Khayelitsha.
Briqwa said her mother and Jaden had died at the scene while Jordan died while being transported to hospital.
The City’s Fire and Rescue Services spokesperson, Theo Layne, said the cause of the fire was undetermined.
Ward councillor Antonio van der Rheede said the family and neighbours would receive counselling.
“We will be getting the family and neighbours to counselling because, while waiting for the coroners to arrive, the bodies were left on the scene which added to their trauma.
“I also really commend the community for rallying and helping in the desperate situation to assist in dousing the fire while waiting for emergency services,” he said.