Snl24 | Tragic end for man on fire

Residents says they are heartbroken to learn that a man they had saved from a fire passed away. Photo by Misheck Makora

RESIDENTS are still in shock.

This after a man who survived a fire incident on Friday, 6 September, died in hospital.

The sad residents from RR Section in Khayelitsha Site B area, Cape Town said the dead man, who was known as Tata Mqwathi, came out running from a burning shack on Friday.

Daily Sun reported his story under headlined: PICS: Brave makhi saves man on fire

It was his neighbour, Zikhona Jim (33), who poured water on him and extinguished the flames.

Zikhona said she was happy that she managed to put out the fire, but she was hurt when she heard that her neighbour had died two days later.

“It’s sad because I thought I was going to see him again, but it was not meant to be. It’s sad because he was a good neighbour,” said Zikhona.

Residents were left traumatised by the incident.

Speaking about the incident, resident Vuyokazi Ntibithethwa said she was on her way from the tap to fetch water when she saw smoke coming from her shack’s direction.

She said she rushed to check what was happening. As she was approaching her shack, the man Tata Mqwathi was running towards her, and she noticed that his clothes were burning. He was on fire.

ALSO READ: Shock as tenants discover dead mastandi!

Vuyokazi said at the time some of their neighbours were busy taking their belongings out of their shacks, trying to save them in case the fire spread to their shacks.

“It was a horrible scene that I can’t erase from my head. We are all traumatised here. If he had survived, we would have been fine, but now he’s dead,” said Vuyokazi.

City of Cape Town’s Fire and Rescue spokesman, Edward Bosch, said emergency teams were called out at 7.41 am on Friday to a fire in RR Section in Site B.

Bosch said six water pumps and two water tankers were used to fight the fire. He said 16 informal dwellings were affected and 50 people were left homeless.

He said one adult male patient was treated by the ambulance crew for fire wounds.

Police spokesman Sergeant Wesley Twigg said the cause of the fire is yet to be determined, adding that the victim. He said the deceased died on Sunday, 8 September.

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