Enraged Man Accidentally Burns Himself

Lebogang Mosikare | Monday October 29, 2018 13:47

But the idiom recently assumed another meaning (although incidents of a similar nature have occurred in the past) when a man who suspected that his girlfriend was cheating him with another man, the lover unleashed a torrent of fury that ended up razing his girlfriend’s house. He burnt himself in the process.

According to police officers privy to the issue, hell broke loose on October 19, 2018 when the man (name withheld for now because he has not appeared in court) went to visit his girlfriend at her residence in Block 7.

Upon arrival at his girlfriend’s place, the police officers said, the man found his girlfriend in bed with another man in the house.

“He usually goes to his girlfriend’s place without telling her in advance that he would be coming to visit her. After he entered the house without knocking at the door, he found out that his girlfriend was in bed with another man. He then left without causing any commotion,” a police officer said.

The officer said the man then went to a nearby filling station to allegedly buy petrol after he left his girlfriend’s place.

“He then returned to his girlfriend’s house with petrol in a jerry can. The man then opened the door and started sprinkling petrol in his lover’s bedroom. But by then he did not notice that his girlfriend was not inside the room, but was at the back of the room doing some house chores while his girlfriend’s new lover was inside the room,” another police officer said.

The police officers stated that the man who was very furious did not notice that he had also sprinkled petrol on his clothes and legs ostensibly because he was in a state of anger.

The police officers said after the man finished sprinkling the petrol in the room, he took out a matchbox from his pockets and started igniting the room.

“The man’s new lover saw what was happening and within a blink of an eye and with some stroke of luck, bolted out of the room without being burnt while the man’s clothes and legs caught fire,” one of the police officers said. 

“The suspect then ran away crying for help after catching fire pleading with his lover’s neighbours to put the fire that was engulfing him out. The neighbours finally managed to put the fire out and thereafter called the police.”

The police officer added that the neighbours also managed to extinguish the house fire, but by then it had already caused extensive damage to property inside the house and the property itself.

The man, the police officers noted, was taken to Nyangabgwe Referral Hospital where he was admitted under heavy police guard.

The acting station commander of Kutlwano police, Alice Oabile confirmed the incident.

She said the suspect is a 55-year-old night watchman.

“The incident happened at Block 7 on October 19. The damage caused by the fire is estimated at P8,300. The man was admitted at Nyangabgwe Referral Hospital after he sustained serious injuries on his leg, but I am not sure if he is still at the hospital. Currently, we have charged him with arson, but we will charge him with more offences if our investigations show that there is need to do so,” assistant superintendent Oabile said.