Francesca Villette
TANYA George rushed home when she heard her flat was on fire.
“Is he okay? Is my child safe?” she asked.
But it was too late. By the time George arrived at home, her son – 12-year-old Kealan Matthews was already dead.
Kealan died in Sunday’s fire that destroyed the family’s Woodstock flat. He was left alone in the first floor of his Harbour View apartment when George had to leave at 6.30pm to start her night shift duty. George said her brother, Lyndon, was supposed to go to the flat once he finished work at around 9pm. But that night he had been caught up late at work.
“The building manager phoned me and said I should come home immediately – that my apartment was on fire. The first thing I asked him was whether my son was alright,” George said.
George works at a call centre about five minutes away from her home. On Sunday, she said she was the only employee at the office.
“I ran out of the building and stopped a stranger to ask for a lift.”
Although dark outside, getting into a stranger’s car was the least of her worries.
When George arrived at her apartment, emergency services were already at the scene, trying desperately to extinguish the inferno.
“No matter how much I forced, they would not let me in. I just knew he was gone,” George explained, not able to hold back her tears. Her only son had just been declared dead.
Building manager Raymond Whittle said he was woken by security just before 11pm. When he tried to open the door to save the child, flames gushed out at him. He tried several times to enter the apartment, but he could not get through the door.
“There was smoke everywhere. We started to evacuate the people and had called the emergency services,” he said, adding that no one else was injured.
Kealan’s body was found next to his bed. George said she knows her son was asleep when the fire started.
“My son was very smart. If he was wake, he would have jumped right out of the window. He would have been able to think of a way to save himself,” George said.
Cape Town Fire and Rescue Service spokeswoman Sharon Bosch said the cause of the fire was being investigated.
Police spokesman FC van Wyk said an inquest docket had been opened, but they didn’t suspect foul play and asked anyone with information to call 021 442 3141.