MUM, SON KILLED AS HOUSE STRUCK BY LIGHTNING, BURNS

MANZINI –  A mother and her son were killed when the house they were sleeping in caught fire after being struck by lightning.

Ntombi Lukhele (34) and her son Saziwe Gama (6), were burnt to death while inside the house on Wednesday night at kaDvokolwako.
Attempts by Ayanda Lukhele (38) to save his sister and nephew from the blazing house were in vain as the two perished in the fire.

According to Ayanda, it was around 9pm when dark clouds gathered and lightning started. As it usually happened, Ayanda said there was a power outage around the area.
Due to the fact that his 65-year-old mother was scared of lightning, Ayanda said she and three children who were with her in her house moved out to seek refuge in a kombi that was parked in a garage within the homestead. Ayanda said the choice to stay inside the kombi was from the belief that vehicles were safe from being struck by lightning. 

The rain is said to have lasted for about 20 minutes and after it stopped, the four family members moved back to the house which was opposite where the deceased had been sleeping in.
To their shock, they discovered that the house that Ntombi and her son were in was up in flames. What surprised them the most was that the huge blaze of fire coming from inside the house showed that it had been burning for quite some time. At this point, the family members raised an alarm, screaming for help.

Narrating his gruesome last glance of his family members, Ayanda said although the flame was seeping through the windows, he thought saving his family was worth trying, hence he used a jacket to cover himself up before he got into the bedroom that was used by his sister and nephew.
To his shock, he found his nephew on the floor. Although he realised that he was burnt, he dragged him out into the open.

“It took me several attempts to notice my sister who had curled up between the bed and the wall. Her hand was stretched out on the direction where her son was,” he said with wells of tears in his eyes.
Nonetheless, Ayanda said after the realisation that Ntombi was already dead and nothing more could be done to save her, water was then splashed onto her lifeless body and on the items that had caught fire.
“Although she was already dead, at least we had a body to bury than ashes, so we tried to put out the fire.

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: