Pets first as people flee blaze
2005-12-27 08:55
Cape Town - A panic-stricken woman wanted only her dead son's photos when people in the Melkbos/Duynefontein area had to be evacuated because of a devastating veld fire.
Another woman's priority was to get her sister-in-law's pets to safety first.
More than 1 000 residents and holidaymakers at Melkbos Country Club, the Seapark home for the elderly and the Ou Skip caravan park had to flee about 15:00 on Sunday when a fire broke out in the area.
No casualties were reported.
A thick cloud of smoke still hung above the popular holiday resort on Monday, and firefighters still were putting out flames in some places.
Die Burger was told the staff of up to eight ambulances had done well in evacuating the elderly from the Seapark home, although the institution's 's management did not want to talk about it on Monday.
Country club resident Lunell Gillespie said she was having Christmas dinner in the clubhouse when she heard "we had to be evacuated within 10 minutes".
Strangers lent a helping hand
"The first thing I thought of was the photos of my only child on my flat's walls.
"He died recently and I wanted only to grab the photos and my business machines,'' she said.
She said strangers in town had been helpful and many turned up in their bakkies to help.
Lettie Janse van Rensburg of Vredenburg was looking after her brother's flat, and wanted only to get her sister-in-law's "children" - nine birds and four dogs - away from the country club.
"Oh Lord, it was really quite a thing. What would I have told my sister-in-law if something had happened to her 'children'?
"I loaded the birds in their cages on to a bakkie and put my clothes and the dogs in my car, and went to sleep overnight with a friend at Duynefontein," she said.
An upset Ronel Bester who lived with her boyfriend, Joe Corrie, and his two children in a flat at the country club, said no one had told them what to do.
"The disaster management plan for the area doesn't work. If it had happened at night, the consequences could have been much worse. There was complete panic," she said.
She added that she had not known ''what to grab first.
"All I could see in my mind's eye was my house and possessions burning.''
1 000 people evacuated
Corrie said "residents didn't know where to go or when to return, because there just wasn't any communication with them".
Milnerton fire brigade station commander Pat Muir said everything possible was done to evacuate about 1 000 people from the caravan park, old-age home and the country club.
"Everyone was housed temporarily in the NG Church hall at Melkbos. They all returned home between 21:00 and 21:30.
"The fire that raged from Table View to Duynefontein was brought under control, but we are still putting out flames."
Muir thanked residents of the area who took food and cool drinks to his staff fighting the fires.