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'We are crying in our hearts'
24/07/2008 10:00 - (SA)
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| Residents of Kruger Park flats in Pretoria were evacuated after a fire broke out on the 20th floor on Tuesday. (Randell Veerus, News24 User) |
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Hilda Fourie, Beeld
Pretoria - Hundreds of people waited outside the Kruger Park apartment building in the centre of the city on Wednesday before being allowed back into their flats, after a fire broke out in the building the day before.
Most of the residents Beeld spoke to said they had found temporary accommodation with friends and family members. The Tshwane Metro Council housed about 250 people in the Pretoria North city hall.
Residents of the first two storeys were allowed to collect their most essential possessions on Wednesday morning.
The rest had to wait until police had finished their on-site investigation.
Superintendent Julius Johnson of the Tshwane metro police said officers would keep taking people to their flats until all had collected their possessions.
Volunteers provided bread, jam and orange juice to residents while they waited.
Forensic investigation
The police's forensic unit on Wednesday searched the 32-storey building floor by floor to try locate the origin and cause of the fire. A sniffer dog from the dog unit, who is trained to find the cause of a fire, was also sent into the building.
Five people, including a baby of a few months old, died in the blaze.
Aubrey Ramotlhale, chairperson of the Schubart Park and Kruger Park Residents Committee, said the residents were very grateful for the housing that the Tshwane Metro Council had provided in the Pretoria North city hall.
"If that was not available, where would we have stayed?" asked Ramotlhale.
He said residents of Schubart Park and Kruger Park were mourning, especially for the dead baby.
"We are crying in our hearts," he said.
"The person who did this [the fire], must be found."
Mayor, metro council blamed
A resident who wanted to remain anonymous, said the blood of the five people who died in the fire, was on the hands of Dr Gwen Ramokgopa, executive mayor of the Tshwane Metro Council.
According to the resident, who is 72 years old and has lived in Kruger Park for the past seven years, the apartment building had only been neglected over the last few years.
"This was a five-star place where highly-placed government officials and even former minister Pik Botha's mother-in-law stayed."
The resident said the building became neglected once the Housing Company Tshwane, which belongs to the metro council, took over management of the apartment building a few years ago.
Since then the elevators stopped working, and there were no fire hoses, fire extinguishers or a public phone.
"The Housing Company Tshwane and the mayor are also responsible for what happened here," said the resident.
"They allowed the place to become so neglected. The fire department had declared the building unsafe two years ago."
- Beeld
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