All the birds saved from the weekend’s fire have died
The fire started early on Saturday, 26 January.
Five birds found themselves caught in the middle of a fire in Rinyani Avenue during the weekend, and despite desperate efforts from ER24, all of them have died.
The birds were simply enjoying the lovely morning weather while in their cage during the morning of Saturday, 26 January, when some time between 9am and 9.30am, the thatched roof of the lapa under which their cage was, suddenly caught fire. According to a Honeydew CPF officer, the owner of the house, Willem van der Merwe, said he woke up at about 9am and didn’t notice anything.
Read the initial article here:
https://roodepoortnorthsider.co.za/289141/lapa-catches-fire-allens-nek/
However, it is believed that the lapa caught fire shortly thereafter, and Willem, as well as his gardener, immediately started fighting the fire. Willem’s neighbour, Tebogo Sejane, soon joined the fight against the fire as well, in an attempt to prevent it from spreading to neighbouring houses and getting out of control.
Their efforts prevented just that, and soon after the call was put out, Riga Rescue and ER24 were on scene. Luckily nobody was injured in the fire, and ER24 made sure to get the birdcage out and to try and treat the birds for smoke inhalation and heat exhaustion. ER24 was able to save four of the five birds at first, with only one dying on their watch.
Despite their best efforts, however, Willem has since confirmed that all of his birds have unfortunately died. Luckily Willem’s dogs were taken across the street to a neighbour’s house immediately, and all of them survived the ordeal. Johannesburg Emergency Management Services from Florida reportedly arrived on scene approximately 30/ 40min later to douse what was left of the fire as well as further contain it.
At the time of writing, Willem had not been told yet by EMS what the cause of the fire was. He also stated that his insurance broker had not yet been to visit the scene to estimate the extent of the damage to the property.
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