Girl, 6, dies in fire

Ayabulela Ndabambi was trapped upstairs by the fire.

Ayabulela Ndabambi died when her family’s double-storey Steve Biko Drive home caught fire on Thursday afternoon April 4. The cause of the fire has yet to be determined.

Sandra Ndabambi said Ayabulela had been alone upstairs when the fire had started. No one had known she was there.

She described her daughter, a Luzuko Primary School pupil, as a wonderful, bright child with a big heart.

“She was a brilliant kid that we love. We are not only facing a challenge of losing her, but we are both unemployed. We have no money to bury her as we speak,” she said.

She said her sister had had to borrow money so the family could do a DNA test to confirm that the human remains found in the gutted house had been Ayabulela.

“It is almost the second week now and we have not buried our child. This is on its own horrible,” she said.

Matthews Lose, 41, said there were many unanswered questions surrounding his daughter’s death but the only thing now was to bury her and he appealed for help to do that.

“I am not working, and the mother is not working. We are facing a difficult time. It is just unbelievable that she was trapped upstairs. But we cannot fault her or any other person for her death. But we are still confused as to how the fire started. Anyway for now we appeal for help,” said the distraught father.

Fire and Rescue Service spokesman Jermaine Carelse said that on the day of the fire, 14 firefighters, two engines, a water tanker and a rescue vehicle had been deployed just after 3pm.

At the scene they had learnt that someone was trapped inside. Searching the first floor, they had found a child with fatal burn wounds. Two men with minor injuries had been treated at the scene. The fire was extinguished just before 5pm. The cause of the fire is being investigated.

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