Durban — The owner of the house in Chatsworth that burnt down on Sunday could not hold back his tears as he described how his home of more than 10 years was destroyed while he and his wife were away.
Sagren Naidoo said that he had gone out with his wife to celebrate Diwali. They received a call informing them that smoke was coming out of their home.
Naidoo said that he grew up in the house and they had spent a lot of money upgrading it.
He accused the firefighters of arriving 45 minutes late after they were called.
He said that their department was not so far from his home.
Naidoo added that they were still waiting for investigations to be concluded about what may have caused the fire.
He said they had slept at a relative’s house.
Another family member, who refused to be named, said that when the firefighters arrived, their vehicles did not have water and that they spent another 15 minutes trying to get water to fight the fire.
Siphamandla Kweyama, who works as a gardener for the Naidoos, said that he was saddened by the fire as he had spent most of his life working for the family.
“When they called me about the fire I did not believe it. I had to come and see this for myself.”
Acting division commander of the eThekwini Fire Department, Sifiso Mbatha, said that it was not true that the firefighters had arrived late or that their vehicles had no water.
Giving a detailed incident report, Mbatha said: “Our emergency control centre received a report of a house alight in Pelican Drive, Chatsworth, at 3.31pm.
“A command vehicle, rescue pumper and a water carrier were dispatched at 3.32pm. “The second rescue pumper, a back-up appliance, was dispatched at 3.34pm.
“The first appliance with 2 000 litres of water arrived at the scene at 3.43pm and l was there with them.”
He added that the house was well alight and the roof had collapsed.
“One line of hose was laid down to stop the fire from spreading.
“Other vehicles booked in attendance (a) few minutes late and a second line was run out. After the initial size-up brigade was notified that no person (was) injured defensive mode was implemented.”
He said that SAPS, and the metro police were in attendance prior to “our” arrival.
“Water was shuffled from a nearby fire hydrant.
“Fire was so raging but (the) brigade managed to have it under control in less than 30 min. The all-clear stop message was given at 5.36m,” said Mbatha.
Mbatha added that he did not know what the accusations of the family were based on.
“There is a fire hydrant less than 50 metres away from the house and it would not even take five minutes for it to release water,” he said.
Mbatha said all their vehicles always have water and no vehicle would leave the station without water.
Meanwhile, more than 200 shacks were engulfed by fire at the weekend.
Premier, Nomusa Dube-Ncube, said interventions started on Monday. Now a place would be identified where community members would be relocated to as they cannot rebuild them there as the land was privately owned.
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Daily News