Two children die in fire
Staff Writer | Thursday January 9, 2014 16:16
The unnamed boys aged nine and 13, died at the low-income location on Sunday early morning after a room they shared with their mother caught fire reportedly from candlelight.
At the time of the incident the mother was away on a mission to gather Mophane worms in Mosetse.
“We are still investigating but as of now there is nothing to suggest that the mother who was away at the time of the accident should be charged with child negligence.
“We also do not rule out foul play but, like I said, we are still investigating. More information about the case will be available in coming days,” Superintendent Mojaboswa Mathitha, the station commander of the Central Police Station (CPS) told Mmegi yesterday.
According to Mathitha, the mother, a Zimbabwean national, said that she had asked her neighbour to keep an eye on the children.
“We are told the family was on a shot visit in the country as the mother was on an expedition to gather Mophane worms in Mosetse.
“We are also informed that the family rented a room in Monarch which was supposed to be for a brief stay before returning to Zimbabwe. “But we will soon ascertain everything surrounding their exact residential status and how they entered the country as we are still investigating,” Mathitha said.
But Mmegi is informed that the family might have been staying here permanently either illegally or legally.
The fire is said to have gathered momentum at around 2 am before being noticed by passers-by who informed the police and the fire department.
The assumption is that the boys forgot to extinguish the candle when they went to sleep, resulting in it falling and causing the inferno.
Fire fighters from the city council and police officers who arrived around 2.30 am barricaded the road in front of the homestead where the incident took place as they attempted to rescue the children.
Moments after the fire have been put out, it was confirmed that the two children had died.
The boys’ corpses were retrieved from the room and placed in two large white plastic body bags and ferried to a nearby police vehicle.
Mathitha said the post-mortem on the bodies will be performed today to determine the exact cause of their death before police map the way forward.The Sunday incident revived memories of another disheartening fire incident towards Christmas in 2011 in which two children, still from Monarch died in hospital from fire injuries, after a room they shared with their mother was engulfed by fire.
Just as in this case, the mother was away, and a burning candle was also thought to have caused the fire. Meanwhile Donga residents were on Monday morning left in shock after a 45-year old man killed his 32-year old lover before committing suicide.
According to Mathitha, the lovers were cohabiting at their rented room at the location and had two children. Mathitha said that the police were informed about the incident at around 4 am yesterday. “The landlord where the couple rented a room reported the matter to the police. The woman was stabbed with what is suspected to be a knife on the neck.
“We later mounted a search and found her partner’s dead body hanging from a tree on a hill situated inside the golf course behind Nyangabgwe Referral Hospital (NRH),”the police boss said. The man was unemployed while the woman was a street vendor. He said the police are yet to establish the motive for the incident.