Cape Town - A one-year-old girl from Delft has died after her mother’s Wendy house went up in flames on Wednesday morning.
The heartbroken father of Michaela Langenhoven says he cannot describe the horror of arriving home to find his daughter’s charred remains among the debris after a fire gutted their house in The Hague.
Fire and Rescue Service spokesperson, Jermaine Carelse, says firefighters responded to the blaze in De Haviland Street where they found a structure attached to the main house on fire.
“Bystanders notified the crew that one person was missing. The fire was extinguished at 9.22am and the body of a female minor was discovered.
“The scene was handed over to the South African Police Service and the cause has not yet been determined.”
Aunty Monique Damonse, 35, says Michaela was asleep in the Wendy house when the blaze broke out.
“I also sleep in the Wendy house and in the morning I came inside and then her mommy, Chevon, 35, came in the house to use the toilet.
“She was only in there for a few minutes and we heard people shout there was a fire.
“We tried to get her out but the flames were everywhere and we couldn’t get in. We don’t know how the fire started.”
Dad Michael Stevens, 29, says he was on his way to work when he was told something was wrong at his house.
“I was on the bakkie and we were going to do a job. I am a tiler and work with one of the neighbours,” he explains.
“I was at the back at the bakkie when I just saw my boss swaai (swerve) off the N1 and race back towards Delft.
“Someone had phoned him and told him what happened but I didn’t know what was going on.”
The heartbroken father says he arrived home to find the street filled with shocked residents who told him what happened.
“He drove fast but when we got here it was too late, she was already dead,” he cries.
“The whole road was full of people and I was so confused and then they told me they found her body at the back.
“Ek is stukkend. (I am broken.) That was my only child and she is everything to me.”