ON early Monday, residents in the community of Marikana, woke-up to ravaging fire that claimed lives of seven family members, including a kid.
This was confirmed by Emergency services from the City of Ekurhuleni, who responded to the Marikana informal settlement after receiving a distress call at around 3am on Monday.
Upon arrival, the emergency personnel saw a four-roomed shack engulfed by fire, as community tried frantically to distinguish flames.
William Ntladi, City of Ekurhuleni Disaster and Emergency Management Services spokesperson, confirmed on Monday morning, only one family member survived, a girl around seven years of age, who was transported to the nearest hospital for further medical treatment.
“The home of seven family members was destroyed by fire, all of them trapped inside while sleeping overnight, and only one escaped with critical burn wounds,” said Ntladi.
“Firefighters extinguished the blaze. However, on search, rescue, and recovery, all six were found to have burnt intensively, and only one survived with critical burns,” said Ntladi.
Ntladi said the rest of the family members, six of them, were declared dead on scene.
“The cause of the fire is undetermined. Police are on scene for scene rehabilitation and removal of the bodies to a pathological facility,” Ntladi elaborated.
“It is gruesome. They were burnt beyond recognition. Their charred bodies are still there on the scene. It is intense burns, one cannot recognise what is happening. Small remains of their bodies are still on the scene. It is difficult for us to identify who is who. Only one or two of them can be identified by the families,” recorded a very distraught community member.
“We do have two toddlers, one was one-and-half years old and the other one was four-years-old. All of them, they burnt completely. There were girl children aged 12 and 20 years who are also burnt beyond recognition.
The mother aged 42 and the father aged 47 – all of them have been burnt beyond recognition,” continued Ntladi.
Names and ages of all the people who died, have been provided to relevant authorities for confirmation, Ntladi confirmed.
