Number of children deaths rise in shack fires
By Tarryn Le Chat
13 May 2007
A 10-year-old boy inside pounded against the windows in a vain bid to save his life and that of his two siblings as the flames engulfed his Wesbank home.
The children’s mother and neighbour’s watched in horror as the shack burned down, killing Michaela Jones, Shahida Mohammed, six, and two-year-old Abubukar Mohammed.
It had just past midnight when a neighbour, Heather Wagenaar, 18, heard an explosion “like a petrol bomb” from the home across the street. Wagenaar, her aunt and mother rushed out the street to see a fire destroying the home of Portia Mohammed and her three children.
Where there was once a family of four, there remained a grief-stricken mother and the charred remains of a small tin shack.
Wilfred Solomons of Disaster and Risk Management says the number of deaths of children rose to five in Cape Town since Friday.