Mystery fire causes damage of R2 million

A mysterious fire that started in one of the garages of a house in Golgotha in Thohoyandou caused damage estimated at nearly R2 million.

The fire, which completely gutted the Neduvhuledza house, was spotted by neighbours on Friday evening at around 21:00. The cause of the fire is still unknown.

House owner Eunice Neduvhuledza, an Eskom employee based in Polokwane, said she was at her other home in Polokwane when neighbours phoned to tell her the house was on fire. "There was nothing I could do as I was far away from home, but I tried calling my relatives who were there looking after the house. I only arrived here on Saturday and was so stressed..."

She added that, on her arrival at home, she was greeted by a mangled wreck of twisted metal and a car that was completely gutted. All the furniture and other articles in all the rooms were completely destroyed.

"This is a disaster that we see on television, happening far from us. This time it was happening to our family! Luckily no one was injured in the fire, and we have only God to thank for protecting us," she said.

A neighbour, Dr JG Tshifularo, said neighbours came in numbers to help but could not save anything as the flames were fierce.

During the visit of the Limpopo Mirror to the house, a group of neighbours and members of the Sibasa Seventh Day Adventist Church were comforting the family. "We have a welfare wing in our church which deals with such eventualities and we are going to investigate where we can assist them," said Mr Calvin Chilukwa, who heads the social welfare division at the church. He was accompanied by church elder Simon Nembudane.

Thohoyandou police spokesperson Const Avhafarei Tshiovhe confirmed the incident and said that they had not yet established the cause of the fire. "We can confirm that an arson case was opened, but as of now we do not know the exact cause of the fire, and it will form part of our investigations," she said.

Date:23 January 2015

By: Elmon Tshikhudo

Elmon Tshikhudo started off as a photographer. He developed an interest in writing and started submitting articles to local as well as national publications. He became part of the Limpopo Mirror family in 2005 and was a permanent part of the news team until 2019.

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