IN PICTURES | ‘Lone arsonist’ strikes again, this time with a casualty

A suspected arsonist alleged to be on the loose in Johannesburg’s elite northern suburbs may have struck again. On Thursday morning a large family homestead in lower Houghton was gutted.

While the attack bears all the hallmarks of several others in surrounding suburbs, this time someone was seriously hurt. The incident has ended with an elderly man badly injured and in hospital.

Sunday Times Daily visited the scene, where stressed family members and close friends were trying to salvage what they could from the soggy wreck after firefighters brought the blaze under control.

While investigations are at an early stage, it has been confirmed that one of the residents of the house, grandfather Risto Andjelopolj, was savagely beaten by an attacker or attackers in the home before it was set alight.

“My father was beaten up and had no way to get out of the house after it was set on fire,” said his son, Jovan Andjelopolj.

“He was found by ADT and the neighbours leaning up against a window just trying to breathe air while the house was burning. Can you imagine? He just needed air,” Jovan said.

Risto lives in the house with his daughter, her husband and their children, all of whom were away when Thursday’s incident happened.

“At this stage my father is in hospital. We’re not sure if he is going to need an operation, but he is definitely suffering smoke inhalation and he was badly hurt in the beating. He is all bruised and red down the one side,” said Jovan.

Throughout the morning friends toiled to save what they could from the soggy remains.

Dripping artworks covered in soot, framed family pictures, a framed Irish Times newspaper article from 1967 — glass smashed and water-damaged — and a 100-year-old book of poetry featured among the items detailed in an inventory before they were removed from the scene.

Earlier this week TimesLIVE reported on a viral Facebook post in which a woman said a lone, serial arsonist was on the loose. She said he was targeting homes in Hyde Park, Dunkeld, Illovo and Craighall Park, and had struck numerous times, burning down properties worth millions.

However, police and emergency services officials said they were unaware of similar incidents and were not investigating a series of attacks.

But after the cases started receiving media attention, it appears that despite denials there have indeed been numerous similar arson attacks, all of them under investigation and involving the destruction or partial destruction of high-value homes.

Now Fire Ops SA, a privately owned firefighting operation that’s active in greater Johannesburg, has confirmed it believes an arsonist is at work.

“We can confirm this allegation, yes. The burglars break in, help themselves to what they can get away with and then set the house on fire,” Fire Ops CEO De Wet Engelbrecht said, adding that he was aware of five recent incidents in Dunkeld alone.

Fire Ops was on the scene in Lower Houghton on Thursday morning.

“It’s not safe in there. The roof has caved in and parts of the structure are still collapsing,” said a firefighter who declined to give his name.

Andre Snyman, founder and head of eBlockwatch, said he was alerted to suspicions of an arsonist, but had been asked to hold off on making any information public by insurance and security companies “who obviously want to catch the guy”.

He said was aware of several incidents in recent weeks.

“What we do know is that there is a guy out there and he operates alone. He seems to watch his victims and then burns their homes down when they are away. He goes in, eats whatever food he can find, throws around some bottles of wine, sometimes wees on the floor or defecates on the carpet, and then sets fire to the place. He doesn’t take anything,” Snyman said.

CAP Security confirmed it was aware of the attacks, but said it was unable to comment further as the cases were all under investigation. Other security companies contacted for comment have yet to respond.