Cape Town -
A couple and their toddler burnt to death when their locked wendy house caught alight in Wesbank near Delft.
Mother Loretta Moos, 32, her two-year-old daughter, Haylee-Anne Moos, and boyfriend, Shaun Buys, 33, were killed in a fire that enveloped the wooden structure in Parsons Crescent late on Easter Sunday. The fire spread to two adjacent brick houses.
Neighbours and relatives had conflicting views about where and how the fire had started. Some said coals from an earlier potjiekos braai caused the fire while others speculated that it was an overturned candle.
The city’s Disaster Risk Management spokesman, Wilfred Solomons Johannes, said the cause of the fire had not been determined.
Police are investigating and have opened an inquest docket. Moos has two other children who live with their father in Mossel Bay. Moos’s mother, Anne Johnson, who also lives in Wesbank, was overcome with emotion on Monday.
She said her daughter usually locked the door with a chain and a lock on the inside. She believes a burning candle fell over in the wendy house, causing the fire. Her father, David Johnson, said: “We feel heartsore, but we have to accept it.”
Cathleen Coetzee, who owns the land on which the wendy house was situated, said that the family had been living there for about a month.
Coetzee’s brick house was also burnt and she has lost all her possessions. She said she woke around 9.40pm to find flames had spread across her house in strong winds.
On Monday, neighbours gathered to look at the remains.
Gilbert Thabani, who owned the wendy house, said he was woken by a knock on the door. He saw the flames coming through his room window.
Thabani and Coetzee did not know the family was inside and said they did not hear any screams.
“Some people came with buckets and some with (hose) pipes. But what shocked us was when the fire brigade came and then told us they were inside,” Thabani said.
Firefighters were kept busy by several shack fires this weekend:
* On Saturday, 120 people were left homeless when 31 shacks caught fire in Lerotholi Avenue in Langa around 11.45pm. No injuries were reported.
* On Monday morning, 27 people were displaced in Gugulethu when a fire gutted 12 shacks. Seven children were among those who lost possessions. The fire broke out behind Joburg Stores off Lansdowne Road. No injuries were recorded and the cause of the fire is being investigated.
* Firefighters also attended to fires in Belhar, Philippi and Gugulethu.
* About 1am on Sunday, a fire broke out in a shack in Freedom Park informal settlement. Police have opened an inquest docket for investigation after it was alleged that the resident’s fiancée had started the fire.
* Around 2.50pm on Sunday, firefighters responded to a fire at the Marcus Garvey informal settlement. Two shacks were burnt, leaving three people homeless. Two neighbouring houses were affected by the fire, suspected to have been caused by sparks from a short circuit in electrical wiring.
* A fire destroyed three wood-and-iron structures, leaving three people homeless, in Andrew Matshikwe Street in Gugulethu at 10.07pm on Sunday.
* At 10.23pm, firefighters found three shacks on fire in Barcelona informal settlement, where 11 people were displaced, reportedly after a lit candle fell over, setting bedding alight.
Cape Argus