‘We have not experienced anything like this’ - Pretoria West family recount horror house fire

Mokwena Dladla, who is the family spokesperson, says her uncle passed away in July.

Her uncle’s four sons have now also died in the fire. 

“We are still so traumatised and sad because this is the very first time that we have experienced anything such as this. We buried my uncle in July, so we were still mourning for my uncle and now this thing happened. All the boys are gone and we are left with the small one. We are shocked and it is so sad for us.” 

Five people lost their lives when a fire ravaged through the house in Pretoria West in the early hours of Wednesday morning. 

The youngest person to die in the fire was only six. 

ALSO READ: Five family members die in Pretoria West house fire

Dladla says she received a phone call from her cousin informing her of the fire. 

“She (my cousin) said I must go and check up on my uncle’s wife because her and the kids were burning and she doesn’t know what to do. But she told me that the ambulance had already taken her to hospital. So I just went to Pretoria West hospital to go and check her. And when I arrived I asked her what happened and she said she just heard her boys and the nanny screaming saying please come and help.

"And when she (uncle's wife) opened her door because she sleeps at the back, there was a lot of smoke coming towards her. She closed the door and took a blanket and dampened it with water. She covered herself and her small boy with it. She took the phone to call her neighbours for help and all of the sudden she couldn’t hear the voices of the boys and the nanny."

While investigations into the cause of the fire are still ongoing, City of Tshwane fire chief Moshema Mosia says there is a possibility it might have started in the kitchen. 

The mother and her youngest son are currently at the Pretoria West Hospital for treatment. 

Gauteng Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs MEC Lebogang Maile says the department will be assisting both families with the burials of their loved ones.