A nine-year-old girl miraculously rescued her two-year-old younger brother from a raging fire that swept through Msawawa informal settlement, north of Johannesburg, on Wednesday.
The siblings' mother said she left the children with their father when she went to work.
She rushed home to check on them after her employer alerted her to the fire, which broke out on Wednesday afternoon.
"When I got home our shack was already on fire, but I found my children and a bag of clothes they were able to salvage safe. My daughter was carrying her brother. I didn't know where their father was at the time."
The woman, from Zimbabwe, said she came to SA in 2005 to look for work.
Yesterday, residents were picking up whatever they could salvage from the charred remains of the more than 200 shacks that were incinerated. Residents had already started erecting new structures.
"We are foreigners here and we can't wait for the government to help us ... we have to help ourselves," said one resident who refused to be named.
Residents said they couldn't wait for the government to bring them new building materials. They said, however, that they didn't know when that would be.
More than 40 families slept in the open field on Wednesday night while others were accommodated at a nearby church in Kya Sands.
Promise Sibanda, also from Zimbabwe, said she narrowly escaped the fire as she fled with her three young children.
She lost all her belongings in the blaze.
MEC for social development Molebatsi Bopape said "the department will give counselling to children who went through this trauma".
Disaster relief organisation Gift of the Givers' manager Saadiq Natha said they will set up a tent with electricity to help school- going children, especially matriculants, to go on with their studies.
Johannesburg Emergency Management Services spokeswoman Nana Radebe said 211 shacks were burned down during the incident.
Fire victims pick up the pieces
A nine-year-old girl miraculously rescued her two-year-old younger brother from a raging fire that swept through Msawawa informal settlement, north of Johannesburg, on Wednesday.
The siblings' mother said she left the children with their father when she went to work.
She rushed home to check on them after her employer alerted her to the fire, which broke out on Wednesday afternoon.
"When I got home our shack was already on fire, but I found my children and a bag of clothes they were able to salvage safe. My daughter was carrying her brother. I didn't know where their father was at the time."
The woman, from Zimbabwe, said she came to SA in 2005 to look for work.
Yesterday, residents were picking up whatever they could salvage from the charred remains of the more than 200 shacks that were incinerated. Residents had already started erecting new structures.
"We are foreigners here and we can't wait for the government to help us ... we have to help ourselves," said one resident who refused to be named.
Residents said they couldn't wait for the government to bring them new building materials. They said, however, that they didn't know when that would be.
More than 40 families slept in the open field on Wednesday night while others were accommodated at a nearby church in Kya Sands.
Promise Sibanda, also from Zimbabwe, said she narrowly escaped the fire as she fled with her three young children.
She lost all her belongings in the blaze.
MEC for social development Molebatsi Bopape said "the department will give counselling to children who went through this trauma".
Disaster relief organisation Gift of the Givers' manager Saadiq Natha said they will set up a tent with electricity to help school- going children, especially matriculants, to go on with their studies.
Johannesburg Emergency Management Services spokeswoman Nana Radebe said 211 shacks were burned down during the incident.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Register (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.
Trending
Latest Videos