Pinetown family lose everything in devastating house fire
A Pinetown woman says her family lost everything after a fire destroyed her home of five years.
The blaze broke out in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
Sameera Safla says she was up at the time to feed her 15 month-old-baby.
"After that my husband heard some sounds and the dogs were barking. When he went to see what was happening, he felt a heatwave above him. He looked up, and he saw the roof was on fire. He screamed and told me to take the baby and get out of the house, the house was on fire."
Safla says the roof quickly collapsed.
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"So when the fire started on the roof, the ceiling boards were on fire so those pieces were falling all over the house, and everything caught alight and it spread in a matter of seconds.
"We couldn't go back to save any items, it was just terrible. We just had to stand back and watch everything we worked hard for go up in flames. Thank God, we got out in time, otherwise we wouldn't have been so lucky."
Safla says although her family and seven dogs managed to get out of the property safely, they were left traumatised.
eThekwini Fire says it took its crews from Westville and Pinetown over two hours to fully extinguish the blaze.
Safla says they are staying with her mother for the time being, and hope they will be able to rebuild their home soon.
