Ocean View police are investigating a case of arson after a fire damaged a flat and destroyed a Wendy house in the early hours of Wednesday November 13.
According to residents, the fire, which broke out at around 2.30am, is believed to have been caused by a flare thrown by a man who was aiming for his girlfriend’s house but landed on the wrong property.
Joan Klein said the flatlet on top of her garage was badly damaged in the fire and she had opened a case of arson.
She said she had only paid one instalment on the new building before it went up in flames, and the furniture she had recently bought had been destroyed.
According to a contractor’s quote, seen by the Echo, the damages to the building amounts to R77 800.
Ms Klein said her neighbour, Poen Letsape, a painter, had lost all his equipment and stock in the fire.
Ms Klein said the suspect was known to her, and it was the second time he had started a fire. She claimed he had threatened to kill her son and his cousin after they had warned him to stop abusing his girlfriend.
Ms Klein said the man had thrown a petrol bomb at his girlfriend’s house on Tuesday October 15, but it had landed on a dog kennel at Ms Klein’s house and her son had managed to extinguish it before it could spread.
“He aimed completely wrong. He aimed too high and it completely missed his girlfriend’s house,” she said, referring to the petrol bomb incident.
She had opened a case of arson at the police station, but it had been closed with no arrests being made, she said.
“I have been traumatised by this incident and the losses I have suffered, but I am grateful that my children are safe,” said Ms Klein, adding that she was undergoing trauma counselling.
Mr Letsape said his wife had woken up to the sound of the flare igniting. The flare had landed between his workshop, a three-metre by six-metre wooden Wendy house – where he stored paint, brushes, power tools and other equipment – and Ms Klein’s garage, and it had been engulfed in flames.
“I have lost everything, including unopened tins of white paint I had stocked up on,” he said.
The power tools alone had been more than R60 000, he said.
After evacuating his family and dogs, he tried to put out the fire with a hosepipe, but the water pressure was too weak.
Mr Letsape said one of his bull terriers, Zinki, a registered show dog, had to be euthanised due to severe burns sustained during the fire.
“My family is traumatised by the incident and by the loss of our family pet and this guy is still at large,” he said.
He said a flare with a rubber handle had been retrieved from the rubble and handed to the police as evidence.
“It was one of those flares that can burn underwater. There was no way we could put it out,” he said.
City Fire and Rescue Service spokesperson Jermaine Carelse said emergency services had been alerted at about 2.41am and crews from Kommetjie, Fish Hoek, Lakeside, and Simon’s Town extinguished the fire by 4.25am.
The first floor of the double-storey house had suffered damage and an informal structure on Petunia Street had been completely destroyed but no injuries had been reported, he said.
Ocean View visible policing commander Captain Nick Spreeth confirmed that a case of arson was under investigation. He said there was no connection between this case and the earlier incident reported by Ms Klein.
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