By Inge van der Westhuizen and Lilja Flohr
On Thursday 14 August, at roughly 05:35, a fire started in one of the rooms of Irene Women’s Residence. Marina dos Santos, Vice Primaria of Irene, recalls, “I was sleeping when I heard frantic knocking at my door. When I opened the door, it was one of my HCs and she just said, ‘Marina, you need to come right now, there’s a huge fire.’ I ran up the stairs and saw the mattress that was on fire in the hallway.”
The House Committee reportedly quickly sounded the fire alarm and started evacuating the house. Meanwhile, Dos Santos heroically remained close to the fire and began her efforts to contain the flames. “I grabbed the nearest fire extinguisher and started spraying it over the fire on the mattress. I could barely see anything because there was so much thick, black smoke. Once the mattress had been put out, I went into the room and put out the fire in there.”
According to Dos Santos, Campus Security arrived shortly after the fire had already been put out. Upon reflecting on the House Committee’s response to the crisis, she regrets contacting Campus Security instead of calling the fire department directly, since Campus Security “only called [the fire department] after they arrived on the scene.”
Jana Burger, a first year BA (Language and Culture) student and resident at Irene, became aware of the fire as she woke up to people screaming, but initially did not take it seriously. As the fire alarm went off, she “honestly thought it was just another false alarm; we get those often. But when I saw the smoke coming into the hallway, that’s when it hit me that this was real.”
Burger recounts, “Everyone stayed surprisingly calm, even walking through the smoke. We just grabbed what we needed and got out.” Since she lives on the third floor, she had to evacuate through smoke-filled hallways and staircases while using a flashlight.
According to Burger, unlike during the drills where it repeats, the alarm only went off once and “the intercom was in for maintenance, so there was no information over it – just people shouting, ‘There’s a fire, evacuate!’ and eventually a message on the [WhatsApp] group.” She is most concerned about the lack of an official statement, as “the only information circulating is rumors, [and] there was never a clear ‘this is exactly what happened’ from leadership.”
A second year BCom International Business student living in Irene gave Die Matie more insight into the morning of the fire. “The fire alarm went off, but only for a little bit, so they were manually banging on everyone’s doors, waking everyone up,” she recounts.
She was first confused by the commotion so early in the morning, until she heard “Fire!” which she claims was rather scary. “Everyone was kind of [shocked] because it’s not normal for a fire to happen in the residence.”
When walking down the stairs, the student states that she had difficulty seeing where she was going due to the excessive smoke, and had to make use of her flashlight. “[I]t was quite scary, how the smoke travelled up the stairs.”
The student highlights that the residence head, Riana Engelbrecht, was a comfort in the crisis. “She brought us coffee and tea.”
Dos Santos stated, “After the fire, while campus security and the fire department were busy doing their procedures, we made sure to give regular updates to the residents. We as leadership are planning to send out a statement, or discuss what happened during our next House Discussion.”
Reportedly, the damage caused by the fire was minor. “Two doors will need to be replaced, as well as some furniture, and there are some burn marks on the floor, but overall the biggest work will be cleaning the soot off the walls and ceilings and doing some repainting,” says Dos Santos.
The exact cause of the fire is still under investigation. Reportedly, one student was present in the room when the fire broke out. There are reports of a few minor injuries among the students, however they are all believed to be in good health.
Dos Santos proudly praises the house’s response to the crisis. “I […] saw how the residents worked together to make sure everyone was safe, such as taking rollcall, and helping each other through the smoke.” She held that the experience was “invaluable” in showing the importance of regular fire drills, and highlighting the importance of each procedure. For instance, she mentions that one of the residents’ shoes were badly burnt, “showing why we insist that they must wear shoes for the fire drill.”
