123RF.com
Speaking to Sowetan from his Benoni home in Ekurhuleni on Tuesday, the 51-year-old whose name is being withheld to protect their children, battled to save his 48-year-old wife from the flames engulfing her isolation room at their house. He said his wife woke up that morning around 4am and went to the kitchen while everybody in the house was still asleep. He and their 17-year-old son went to check if she was fine before they went back to bed.
“I immediately took a blanket and tried to put out the fire until my brave eight-year-old child ran to fetch a bucket of water which she emptied on her mom in an attempt to rescue her.”“She was painfully sobbing. She got up and took a heater and held it tight. I ran again and removed it from her. She was hallucinating, my heart broke and I felt so helpless. I held her and watched her till the paramedic arrived and rushed her to hospital.