Boys brave fire to save man

2003-09-01 22:33

Craig Bishop

Pietermaritzburg - Two schoolboys dragged a Pietermaritzburg man away from a burning multiple car pile-up in which at least one person was burnt to death on the N3 near Tweedie on Monday.

This was just one of many heroic stories of communities responding to runaway fires fuelled by 100km/h winds, which swept through the Midlands.

Steve Vorster told the Witness that he had been driving back to Pietermaritzburg on business when he slammed into the rear of a bakkie hidden by thick smoke drifting across the highway.

"It was immensely hot in the car, like I was cooking," he said. "Cars were passing by and I was hammering on the window but no one stopped. I managed to get out and ran 50m, then I fainted.

I remember I fell, then I woke up and these two high school boys were dragging me away from the burning cars."

A witness, Tweedie resident Peter Hugo, said that he had heard three loud, consecutive bangs as cars ploughed into each other.

'Rugbyball'

"I tried to get to the bakkie where I thought someone was trapped but the flames and smoke were too much. Everyone else just ran from the car," he said.

Thick black smoke billowed across the highway after the first accident, causing a two kilometre tail-back.

Four other cars were involved in the pile up. After firemen finished dousing a Toyota bakkie which had skidded off the side of the road after colliding with another car with water, it was possible to see the remains of a passenger in the back seat.

The ribs of the body were clearly visible and it appeared that the flesh had been burnt off its head. Witness initially thought they were looking at a football.

The neck was bent at an extreme angle and local paramedics on site speculated that the victim had probably died of a broken neck before being engulfed by the flames.

Howick

About 20km away Howick residents - from the elderly in old age homes to the young, all with red, smoke-filled eyes and sooty clothing - rushed out with their hose pipes and buckets of water to help put out fires which threatened parts of the CBD.

The local fire brigade used three full water loads in under an hour in an attempt to put out flames that damaged several businesses and houses, and left a thick, black pall of smoke hanging over the tourist haven.

- The Witness