Homeless couple may lose dogs

2003-10-23 09:33

Adriaan Basson

Johannesburg - A pensioner's expensive mistake might cost him and his wife their dogs as well as their home, which was razed to the ground.

Izak Rossouw, 74, of Maraisburg poured petrol instead of paraffin into a heater, which caught fire and set their municipal house alight.

Rossouw said: "I tried at first to put out the flames, but then told my wife we should leave the house. I went back to save the two dogs and burnt my hands badly."

Sakkie Rossouw jun says his parents lost their spectacles and their pension money. A bedroom suite and other odds and ends were taken from the house.

The couple don't have insurance and are being housed temporarily in an old-age home in Maraisburg.

The two dogs are with the SPCA in Roodepoort and Rossouw jun says they will have to be put down, because the old-age home doesn't have room for them.

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- Beeld