Keetmanshoop
A shack was reduced to ashes in yet another blaze during lunch-hour yesterday at Keetmanshoop’s Tseiblaagte location, leaving its four female occupants destitute with nothing but the clothes on their backs.
The backyard shack reportedly went up in flames after a six-year-old boy, who was playing with matches, accidentally lit a matchstick, setting some clothes in the shack on fire. The fire quickly spread, burning everything in the shack.
No injuries were reported, as the residents were all in the main house at the time of the incident.
Vinna Boois, one of the women at the home, said everyone was sitting in the main section when they suddenly saw smoke coming out of the shack. But, she noted, it was too late, as the fire had already engulfed the shack and no item could be salvaged.
“We were sitting in the house and we just saw smoke coming from there, but it was too late to get anything out,” she stated.
She said all has been lost in the fire, which included a washing machine, two beds, clothes, blankets, a television set and identity documents.
The Keetmanshoop fire brigade was quick to respond but could only extinguish the remains of the burnt items.