NATIONAL Communications Network (NCN) journalist, Mia Ritchie, is counting her losses and wondering about her next move after her Lot 6, Thorne’s Drive, Durban, Backlands home was completely gutted by a midday fire on Thursday.

Ritchie resided at the house with her nine and 11-year-old children and was at work when she got the news around 12:45 hrs that her home was one fire.
When she got there, firefighters were already battling the blaze; however, the home was already destroyed.

“I was at work, I wasn’t here. My supervisor came in and told me someone called to say the house is on fire, so I called my neighbour and she confirmed it. When I got here, the Fire Service was there but the entire house was engulfed,” Ritchie related.
Ritchie is uncertain about the extent of her losses. The three-bedroom flat was fully furnished and nothing was saved.

“At this moment I’m incapable of even going there, I’m just distraught over the fact that everything is gone, everything, nothing was saved. Someone just offered me somewhere to go. I just have to come down from this to figure out how I’ll move on,” Ritchie said.

No one was at home at the time of the fire and investigations are on-going as to its cause. Speculations are that the fire could have been electrical in nature but Ritchie recalled that she used no appliances prior to leaving home.

“When we left this morning we had black out, so we didn’t use any iron, the fan wasn’t on; the only thing in the house that was on would’ve been the refrigerator that is usually left on,” Ritchie explained.

She added: “They didn’t find any [cause] immediately so I guess with further investigation they might be able to pick up something but, as it is right now, they don’t know what caused the fire.”

GFS sub-officer, Marlon Wilson, explained that from all indications, the fire started in one of the bedrooms and spread rather quickly; however, the Fire Service was able contain the blaze within minutes of arriving.

“When we got here, the fire was in the master bedroom and what happened is that the fire spread via the ceiling to the other rooms. We were able to surround the fire from the north and southern side and we were able to put it out. Water wasn’t a problem, we had adequate water. Within the first 15 minutes of getting here, we were able to contain the blaze to the structure. But the fire had already spread to other parts of the building. Investigations into the cause are continuing” he said.

The Fire Prevention Unit will revisit the home and do a thorough assessment.