Five children die in fire after allegedly left alone at home

Five children aged between one and nine died when a shack caught fire at Sonderwater informal settlement in Ikageng on Sunday night.

North West police have opened an inquest, with this being the second incident after reports of another shack fire in the past two weeks.

Police spokesperson Col Adele Myburgh said the first incident was reported in the Hashtag informal settlement on July 6. “We discovered the charred remains of four-month-old twin boys among the debris.”

Myburgh said officers were called to the latest incident shortly before midnight after receiving reports of a shack fire.

“When police arrived, they found the shack completely destroyed by the fire. The bodies of five children were found inside the structure, and emergency medical rescue services certified all five dead at the scene.”

The victims were three girls and two boys. Three of the children, aged one, seven and nine, were siblings, while the other two, aged one and eight, were the children of their mother’s sister.

According to preliminary police investigations, the children’s mothers had allegedly left the children alone at home while they went out.

The women were alerted by community members that the shack was on fire and rushed back to the scene.

Together with residents, they tried to extinguish the flames using buckets of water.

Police said access to the shack was difficult because of the layout of the informal settlement, making firefighting efforts more challenging.

The cause of the fire has not yet been established and is under investigation.

Acting North West police commissioner Maj-Gen Ryno Naidoo described the incident as devastating and urged residents to take extra precautions to prevent fires.

He appealed to residents never to leave candles, paraffin stoves or other open flames unattended, to avoid overloading electrical plugs and to ensure heating devices are switched off before leaving home or going to sleep.

Naidoo also warned parents and guardians never to leave children home alone.

He urged residents to keep matches and lighters out of reach of children and to ensure homes have a safe escape route and immediately evacuate burning structures before contacting emergency services.

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