Fire safety was in the news again recently,following the tragic deaths of a mother and her young children in a house fire in Norwood, Johannesburg. One of our readers wrote in to share her narrow escape from a similar fate with us, and to highlight the precautions we can all take.

I was on holiday in Durban to celebrate Women’s Day with my little girl. Our last stop was to stay with my dear friend Jo. Jo’s husband was away. We put our 3 babies to bed (James, 1, Sarah 1 and Anabel 2), and had a quick bonding session before going to bed ourselves at about 9.30pm.

At about 11.30pm, I awoke to the tossing and turning of my little girl in the camp cot beside me. I could not work out what was wrong with her as nothing appeared evident. Eventually, after about half an hour, I decided to move her into my bed so that I could keep a closer eye on her - this was the best move I could have made. She proceeded to toss and turn, and on occasion would kick me in the head or tummy, keeping me awake. Grumpily, I propped myself up to watch her and try to figure out what was wrong.

Luckily for me, the door behind which we slept had a glass pane at the top of it, so that I could see light from the passageway. At about 2.30am, I noticed a strange dull flickery light through the pane. I thought it might be Jo checking on her babies. I then heard a very quiet crack, which sounded like it could be a dog scratching. After about 20 seconds, I thought I should go and see what it was (bearing in mind that the house was pretty much silent).

I stepped out of my room and all seemed fine. I turned the corner to the landing (we were upstairs, locked behind a security gate) and I noticed that the cord of the ‘down light’ hanging from the ceiling was on fire. I then noticed a hole that had been burned in the ceiling about the size of a pillow; still no smell, no sound. I yelled for Jo, and by the time she had got to me (20 seconds later) the hole had doubled in size. She pressed the panic button, and we grabbed the 3 children and ran downstairs. By the time we were downstairs, smoke was billowing out of the roof, and was reaching us below, so much so that it was hard to breathe.

My judgement of time becomes a bit shaky at this point, but I would say within 2 minutes the whole of the top story was raging in flames. The roof was well on fire, the ceilings ablaze… and the house was pretty much burning down. The fire engine arrived 8-10 mins later, but they were really too late. Poor Jo stood and watched her house burn down.

We made it out of that house with seconds to spare, sporting only our pyjamas. There was no time to take anything else. Everything was lost… everything. The fire brigade managed to get the fire under control and saved the kitchen and the sitting room, but other than that, all was lost within half an hour.

The possibilities:
• Had I not been awake, I would never have heard or smelled the fire until it was too late.
• Had there not been a glass panel above my door, I would never have seen the light.
• If we had tried to carry anything else out of the house, besides our children, we would not have made it out in time.
• Had the fire been downstairs, it would have been impossible to get out.
• Had I not been sleeping in the same room as Sarah, I would not have heard her.
• Had any of these things not been the way they were (and many other things)… we would not be alive!

The fireman told us that it takes 3 minutes for a fire of that size to consume all the oxygen, making it impossible to breathe.

Call to action!
Please friends, this weekend, go and buy smoke alarms. They are easily available and simple to install - I believe they cost R100 or so. And while you are about it, buy one for any of the helpers you have at home, so that they too can install one. They work in shacks, the homes most vulnerable to fires. There is not a culture of smoke alarms in SA - I know we don’t have any - but in the UK it is a legal requirement.

We are coming out of the shock now, and have processed in great depth what could have been. We have lost a few things - Jo has lost her house, and all the accumulations of her past. It is overwhelming and devastating, yet also very much balanced by the fact that we have our lives!

I know this sounds dramatic - it is. So please act on behalf of your families.

• Add New

Comments (0)

Write comment

Name:

Email: do not notifynotify

Website:

Title:

Message:

Please input the anti-spam code that you can read in the image.