Carlo Petersen and Sandiso Phaliso
STILL in shock after a shack fire killed four of their children, the Vensile and Vellem families were yesterday struggling to figure out how they would pay for their funerals.
One-year-olds Zanele Vensile and Alwaba Vellem, 3-year-old Azizipho Vensile and 6-year-old Ayakha Vellem had been watching TV in their Khayelitsha home on Monday night when the fire started.
Smouldering ash, scorched sheets of corrugated iron and burnt pieces of plank were all that remained of the Vensile home when the Cape Times visited the scene yesterday.
“I am hurt to hear that their burnt bodies were found next to the door because it shows that they were trying to escape the fire,” said Lungiswa Vensile.
Vensile, the mother of Zanele and Azizipho, said her heart broke when she heard that her two children and two of her sister’s children had died in the fire in Golishe Crescent.
She said the children could not escape while neighbours, who heard their screams, rushed to douse the fire. But the flames had already engulfed the shack.
Vensile said she last saw her children four hours before the tragedy when she visited them before going to work. Her children had been staying with their aunt Zukiswa Vellem.
“When I heard... I rushed to the house and then I was told they died,” she said.
She did not know what had caused the fire.
“My sister says the stoves were off, so we are ruling out that a stove might have caused the fire and I believe my sister. This is a sad story and very painful. We are a poor family. We would welcome any help with the burial arrangements,” she said.
Neighbour Xolisa Madlavu, 25, said that just after 8pm he heard children crying for help.
“I ran outside and saw the big flames,” said Madlavu, who tried in vain to put out the fire.
“The flames were too big. They couldn’t make it out in time and the fire spread to our house. It was too late.”
Madlavu, his mother and two siblings managed to escape but lost all their belongings.
“Those poor little children,” said Madlavu.
The City’s executive director for safety and security, Richard Bosman, said the incident has been handed over to police for investigation.
Bosman said the City provided trauma counselling for the family and gave them with food, blankets and clothing.