Candlelight fires result in two deaths

MBABANE – Candlelight fires cost the lives of two people over the weekend in separate incidents.

Both incidents were attended to by the Eswatini National Fire, Rescue and Emer gency Services personnel. The incidents happened yesterday (Sunday) morning at KaShoba and Lavumisa, Emaplotini. The Siteki and Nhlangano Fire stations at tended to the incidents. The names of both victims have been deliberately withheld as their next of kin could not be reached for comment regarding the incidents. Both incidents were confirmed by the services’Public Relations Officer Mandla Dlamini. In an interview with Dlamini, he said a young man died at KaShoba after he was trapped by a window while trying to escape the blazing fire inside his one roomed flat. Dlamini said the fire was supposedly caused by a candle which was left unattended. He said they suspected that the man who was working as a guard at a homestead at KaShoba was paid his salary and then he visited a drinking hole before going home, where it is alleged he had had one too many drinks. According to Dlamini, when the man reached home, it was believed that he lit a candle and forgot to blow it out after falling asleep. “He was awoken by the fire and opted for the wrong exit, which might have been influenced by his sobriety status, where he was trapped,” Dlamini said. This, he said was because when officers from the Fire, Rescue and Emergency Services arrived to rescue him, they opened the door, which showed that it was not tempered with. He said in a case where there is fire inside a house, the person must try to maintain a low position as mach as possible and crawl to the nearest safe exit point.