'Losing my daughter and her family in a house fire has shattered me'

"It is painful to lose six people at a go, but I have to accept."

These are the words of a heartbroken father who lost his daughter, son-in-law and four grandchildren in a shack fire at Marikana informal settlement in Kwa-Thema, Ekurhuleni, on Monday morning.

Peter Phahla said he was woken up, told about the fire and then rushed to the scene.

When he arrived at his daughter's shack, it had already been engulfed by fire. Someone then broke the heartbreaking news to him that, apart from her 7-year-old granddaughter, everyone else died.

"I am very hurt because the whole thing happened very fast," he said 

"I never imagined that one day I would have to bury my own daughter. She was my eldest child and the only daughter. I expected her to bury me, not the other way around.

"This is painful; I haven't eaten and have been unable to go to work. It's painful to lose six people at one go," Phahla said.

According to Ekurhuleni emergency services spokesperson William Tladi, the fire broke out around 3am on Monday, when the family of seven was sleeping.

Tladi said the layout of the informal settlement helped prevent the blaze from spreading further.

“Fortunately, the homes at the informal settlement have space between them. So while the four-roomed shack burned down completely, the neighbouring structures survived.”

Klaas Mabhena, a neighbour who helped the little girl out of the burning shack, said they tried to douse the flames, but when they opened the tap, the pressure was low.

“The unfortunate part is that the water was low in the early hours. As you can see, our place is muddy. We cannot pick up soil to throw onto the fire. We tried, but managed to rescue only one person,” Mabhena said.

He added that he was traumatised and the experience left him feeling like a failure because they could not save the rest of the family.

“For a moment, I felt like I have failed them. I wish I had gone out earlier.

“I tried to break through the window, but the fire was too big.”

Ekurhuleni MMC for human settlemen Kgopelo Hollo said though Marikana is connected to non-revenue water supply, the "pressure is not the same as in the formalised [residential areas].

“However, a project which is underway at Langaville Ext 7 [in KwaThema], which is going to yield about 1,200 housing opportunities. And the community of Marikana are prime beneficiaries of the project,” he said.

The cause of the fire remains unknown.

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