'Jesus, help!'
2008-09-03 22:35
Amersfoort - "Jesus, help!" a panic-stricken Jeanette Grobler screamed
on the two-way radio as flames consumed her house.
Her neighbour and employer, Annemarie Beukes, says it was "horrific" to hear the 52-year-old's pleas for help.
Beukes and her husband had been in town on Saturday afternoon when they saw smoke in the vicinity of their farm, Tolfontein.
"We raced back home, picked up Willem [Grobler] and started fighting the fire.
"Then we heard Jeanette's voice. She was frantic. She screamed that the house was one fire.
"It was unbearable to hear her plead like that."
Annemarie says they tried to get to Grobler's house, but the smoke
was too dense.
In an attempt to reach the Groblers' home from another direction,
neighbours we called in to help.
"When we eventually got there, the house's roof had collapsed."
Beukes says she suspects that Grobler had been overcome by smoke before the roof gave way.
Two farm workers also died while trying to fight the fire.