The Managa family of Ravele at Ha-Sinthumule is still in shock, after a deadly fire had destroyed almost everything in their house last Saturday evening.

Mrs Elisa Managa, a domestic worker at Makhado, said that her son, Thomas, should consider himself lucky for escaping the flames with no burn wounds when his room went up in flames over the weekend. She doesn’t know what the cause of the fire was, but “because we don't have electricity, we suspect that the fire might have been caused by a candle,” she said.

The ageing Elisa said that by the time her son woke her up, there was a huge, smoking fire. “At first, I thought my son was calling me from the burning room, but I breathed a sigh of happiness when I saw him standing at a distance. We tried to put out the fire, but we could not manage,” she said.

According to Elisa, everything inside the room was burnt to ashes except a candlestick and two irons. “His clothes, bed, blankets, identity document and bank card were burnt to ashes,” she said. She also lost all her clothes in the fire. The fire has seriously damaged the roof and the wall of Thomas’s room.

Elisa said that what happened had touched her, but she is delighted that her son managed to escape. She said that she moved to another room so that Thomas can use her room. She said that when the incident happened, her son’s wife had gone to visit her parents.

The fire has seriously damaged the roof and the wall of Thomas room.