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Baby burnt alive in shack fire

May 17 2010

By Mandilakhe Tshwete

An eight-month baby burnt to death while a Cape Town community stood by helplessly and listened to his screams.

Little Rudy Ontong was left alone in the shack while his mom Patricia, 35, went to buy bread and eggs for her older children on Saturday afternoon.
When she returned, the room where her baby was sleeping was engulfed in flames.

The Overcome Heights mom says she could have lost three children if her neighbour hadn’t grabbed her sons Michael, five, and two-year-old Nathan from in front of the burning shack.

“That man helped me by saving my children… I don’t know what I would have done if three of my children died in the fire,” she said.

The grieving mom said she could not understand how the fire could have started so quickly.

“My children were hungry and I thought I should run to the spaza while Rudy was still sleeping,” she said.

“I was gone for about five minutes and when I went back, my shack was on fire.

“I didn’t leave the stove on and no electrical appliance was switched on.

“The kitchen was not on fire, that’s what confuses me about how it started.”

Community leader Karen Mentoor, 40, told the Daily Voice she had heard the baby’s piercing screams.

“When I arrived at Patricia’s shack, her baby was crying and people were trying to save him,” she said.

“But no one could make it through the blaze and then Rudy stopped screaming.

“We knew that the baby had passed away when two gas tanks exploded,” she said.

The Overcome Heights community has donated clothes and food to the devastated family who have lost everything. – Daily Voice