Cape Town - A little girl and two women have died in a fire that swept through a wendy house and the small house to which it was attached in Tafelsig late Sunday night.
Neighbours rushed to fight the fire as it flared up after 11pm, as the house’s occupants were sleeping. The women and child who died were in the wendy house, while an older woman and a six-month-old baby who were inside the main house were seriously injured and taken to hospital.
Fire fighters believed the fire was caused by a naked flame in the wendy house, said fire brigade spokesman Theo Lane.
“We got the call at 11.19pm and responded with two fire trucks, a water tanker and a rescue vehicle.
“An inspection of the property did not reveal any signs of an electrical fault, but we do suspect the wendy house caught fire when something went wrong with a naked flame such as a candle or a lamp.”
Sandra Simmers, a neighbour and relative of two of the women and the child, said she arrived at the scene when the fire was already out.
“My mother-in-law, Christina Lotz, and a six-month-old baby were sleeping in the house and my sister-in-law, Wilmina Simmers and her six-year-old child Charlene were sleeping in the wendy house with another woman. I don’t know the other woman, she was a boarder who only recently moved in there,” Simmers said.
“I don’t know how I am going to tell my two children that their aunt and cousin are dead, I just don’t know.”
Cape Argus