Cape Town - Just a week before Christmas, a family from Brooklyn has lost their home along with all their belongings in a devastating fire that ravaged their home.
Single mother, Shahieda Lasker, 52, from Princess Alice Avenue, said the fire on Monday morning around 8am was sudden and unexpected, and they suspect it could have been an arson attack.
“My children and I were all still asleep when the people in the road woke us up screaming that my house is burning. I suspect someone threw something on the roof, as it does not make sense, I did not have any electrical issues and the fire started on the roof.
“I managed to run through the house and get all my children out safely because at the time it was just the roof that was burning. We just ran out of the house when the entire ceiling fell in. If nobody woke us up, we would have all died.”
“I am thankful to God that we are all alive but everything is a disaster. Everything is burned to the ground. I could not save a thing and have to restart our lives from scratch. I don’t even have an ID.”
Lasker lived with her five children in the house who are all under the age of 15 years, the youngest being only two years old.
She had four informal structures in her backyard, which she rented out to tenants who also lost everything.
The family has managed to get a tent and one mattress, which they have set up in the front of the house as they have nowhere else to go.
“Some of my children had to sleep at church people’s houses but they are back and this is not a suitable living condition because there are not even window frames.
“It’s a week before Christmas and we have nothing, no clothes, food, appliances, nothing.”
Jermaine Carelse, spokesperson for the City’s Fire and Rescue Service, said the cause of fire is yet to be confirmed.
“This incident was reported at about 8.30 as a house alight in Princess Alice Avenue, Brooklyn, on Monday 16 December. Crews from Brooklyn and Milnerton were on scene and managed to contain and extinguish the blaze by 10.30.
“A formal dwelling and four informal structures were destroyed leaving 12 persons displaced. Two persons sustained minor injuries and did not want to go to hospital.”
Four of the five children are still in school and are aged 14, 12, 10, 9 and 2 years old.