WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2010-08-02 Time: 09:00:01 Posted By: News Poster
Some tried to rush inside to rescue their relatives, but firemen restrained them.
There was nothing anyone could do – and 17 people were burnt to death. An 18th person died later from a suspected heart attack and 84 people were rescued.
Monday morning saw more horror at the Pieter Wessels Reitement Village in Dunnottar, Nigel, when relatives gathered to identify the dead.
They were told most were burnt beyond recognition.
Survivors were transported to a local church.
Thoko Skhosana was one of the relatives who arrived at the home. The 44-year-old woman rushed to the scene soon after seeing a report on TV while getting ready for work.
“I was shocked, I nearly lost my mind,” said a tearful Skhosana, who got a colleague to rush her to the home where her uncle Jonas Skhosana has been staying for the past four weeks.
“My uncle is helpless. He can’t do anything for himself.”
Just like many relatives who arrived at the scene, Skhosana did not know whether her uncle survived or not. Family members would have to go to the different churches and other old age homes in the area to find out.
Concerned staff at the home also arrived early to help.
“I just want to help,” said the home’s laundry supervisor Ria Denkewitz, as she hugged a woman whose husband is a resident at the home. She said would head out to the churches where many of the survivors had been taken, and where many concerned family members were being redirected.
A police forensic team was busy at the scene.
Police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Veeshani Arikum confirmed that the bodies were burnt beyond recognition.
Ekurhuleni Emergency Management Services spokesman Rogers Mamaila said there was panic as firefighters worked frantically to rescue people on Sunday night.
Mamaila said it was still not clear what had caused the fire which started around 9pm. He said the first team to arrive at the scene quickly rushed into the building to try to rescue the 102 elderly people trapped in the house.
He said they managed to rescue 84 people, and four nursing staff and the cleaner were not harmed.
He said one patient was treated at the scene and airlifted to the Charlotte Maxeke Hospital for further treatment. Two others had sustained serious injuries and were transported to area hospitals for the treatment that they required.
Describing the scene, Mamaila said: “It was horrific. The number of people perishing in the fire “made it the worst incident” I have ever covered.”
Mamaila said it was chaotic as family members who had been notified about the fire scrambled to get into the burning building and rescue their loved ones.
“There were screams from the family members outside and the people trapped inside the house. It was crazy. Everyone thought it was easy to go into the building and grab a relative. People need to understand that in situations like that they need to wait for us because they are not trained. People who were trying to help ended up hindering us from doing our job,” Mamaila said.
He said they had to restrain the hysterical relatives and families.
“They parked their cars all over making it impossible for us to even land the helicopter. We had to land it on the road,” he said.
Mamaila said the most difficult time was after the fire had been extinguished and they found the dead people: “We had to leave the bodies there for the forensic experts to take over. Our job is to declare people dead and then it becomes a crime scene, police take over. The bodies are only going to be removed today after the forensic experts have completed the investigation and taken the photos.”
Mamaila said most of the people were unable to run when they saw the fire because they are too old.
Some were bedridden and others wheelchair-bound.
“Imagine the pain of dying because you cannot help yourself. They were old and frail,” he said, adding that a few residents who managed to run out of the building were severely traumatised and hysterical.
“They screamed and were comforted and hugged by their relatives,” he said.
He said there more than 40 firefighters and paramedics who battled the flames for several hours.
This included, Johannesburg EMS and Netcare, and ER24 members.
Original Source: 
Original date published: 2 August 2010
Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/201008020532.html?viewall=1