Residents in the neighborhood of 9th Ave, near the Laudium CBD, were awoken in the early hours of Monday morning, (August 9) after a fire engulfed one of the nearby properties at around 01:00am.
The skies were alight, as flames flared during the early hours of Women’s Day, this past Monday, from a vacant home. It is believed that the home has been vacant for about a year, after the elderly woman of the house, Khadija Abdul, passed on with the estate now in dispute, due to squabbling between family members.
Fortunately, only the outbuilding of the home was destroyed due to the fire, which is believed to have been caused by nyaopes, who were aware that the place had been vacant for a long time and were thus sleeping there at night.
Sylvester Kadeneteme, a communal security guard, on 9th Avenue, told the Laudium Sun, “I was off duty that night and already at home, when my colleague sent me a message that there was a fire at the house, opposite our standing point. I told him to call for assistance from the emergency services. The house was vacant and there was some strange guy, like a nyaope guy who we used to see coming there at night. He told us that he was asked by the family of the owner to look after the house. He was reckless and very unhygienic and allowed all his friends to come there. I’m not even sure even if he was working there. The owner, who was an old lady, passed away, so no one was staying there. The house had squatters. Maybe they were smoking there and that’s possibly why the outbuilding caught fire.”
Neighbor Yvonne Pillay said, “No family stays at the house, since the old woman who stayed there, passed away. Fortunately, the main house did not burn, nor did the flames spread to our house or other nearby homes. It is dangerous to keep a home vacant for so long, as it invites criminals to come and stay there. And this increases the risk to our houses. The owner who was staying there passed away some time ago and now the house is empty.”
Owner of New A1 Fruit & Vegie, Salim Patel, opposite the vacant house, said, “When I closed my shop on Sunday evening, all was fine, but when I came back on Monday morning, which was a public holiday, I heard that the back part of the property was burnt. Luckily, they managed to stop the fire before it spread. The old lady who was the owner of the house passed away, I think almost a year ago. So, the house has been vacant since then and there have been nyaopes going in and out, but we didn’t know who the family was, in order to complain to.”
Prajay Ramjee, of PAJ Security, said, “ProActive Security, together with other security companies and fire fighters and residents, responded to the fire on 9th Avenue. The outer building was gutted, but the blaze was put out before it spread to neighboring properties. We would like to emphasize the importance of not only having fire extinguishers on the premises, but also knowing how to use them.”
