Orphanage: bodies beyond recognition
2010-02-09 18:09
Johannesburg - Emergency workers are sifting through the debris of the Hope in Christ orphanage near Newcastle, searching for the remains of young children killed in a fire early on Tuesday that left 15 dead.
Dressed in blue plastic gowns with masks over their faces, firefighters and medical workers carefully lifted tiny bodies as young as two years old.
Workers used plastic sheeting to carry the children's bodies into a field nearby as the orphanage smouldered.
A spokesperson for the KwaZulu-Natal social development department, Mandla Ngema, said 13 children had died in the blaze.
The shelter was a "home of safety" for orphans and other children in danger, he said.
The fire, which in the early morning hours, gutted the building, destroying documents that might have identified the victims, many of them burned beyond recognition, police said.
Police spokesperson Jay Naicker said: "Police were called to the scene at 06:00 and the house was still alight.
"Police helped the fire department to put out the fire, but it was too late.
"The house burnt down. Nine people have been taken to the hospital with burns."
The cause of the fire was not immediately known, he said.
Authorities could not say how many people were living at the orphanage at the time.
Ngema said: "We have not yet established the cause. We have employed the services of a Pretoria-based company to investigate."
The dead included the director of the home and her four children, Ngema said.
The children killed in the blaze were aged between two and 15.