A Rhodes University law graduate died tragically yesterday while trying to escape from a burning communal house he shared in Grahamstown with other students.
Traumatised neighbours said they heard frantic screaming after midnight as the 21-year-old honours student from Durban tried to get out the well-secured Milner Street digs.
Nicole van der Merwe said she would never forget the “terrifying and painful screams” she heard as he tried to escape the blaze. “It was quite frightening listening to the screams, you could smell the burning.”
Four other students living in the neat and well-maintained house escaped injury and were taken for specialised counselling by Rhodes University experts.
Most of the house, which has burglar bars across all the windows, was destroyed in the blaze and the roof caved in.
A relative of the student and two other people arrived at the house yesterday morning before leaving with counselling pyschologist Dr Colleen Vassiliou from Rhodes.
The body of the unnamed student was found by firefighters in the badly damaged house and has not yet been identified by next of kin.
The four students who escaped the midnight blaze unharmed with the clothes they were wearing are also receiving counselling. Students and staff have responded to appeals to help them and donations of clothing have been received at the university's student affairs building.
The gutted house was cordoned off and under police guard yesterday while they waited for forensics experts to come from Port Elizabeth. The cause of the fire is unknown.
The dead student and his housemates were sleeping when the fire is thought to have broken out in the kitchen and quickly spread through the house.
Police spokeswoman Captain Mali Govender said an inquest docket had been opened after a male in his early twenties had been found in the house.
Rhodes University spokeswoman Catherine Deiner confirmed a student had “died tragically” in a digs fire last night.
Van der Merwe said even though the fire department responded quickly there was little they could do to save the student as the house was already burning fiercely when they arrived.
She said she heard explosions as the windows popped from the heat and had to rescue her elderly parents from a cottage near the burning house.
Retired farmer Peter Wilmot, who owns the house with his wife Allie, said the fire was a huge shock.
“It is very sad, a house can be replaced but not a life.”
Rhodes student dies as flames gut commune
Traumatised neighbours said they heard frantic screaming after midnight as the 21-year-old honours student from Durban tried to get out the well-secured Milner Street digs.
Nicole van der Merwe said she would never forget the “terrifying and painful screams” she heard as he tried to escape the blaze. “It was quite frightening listening to the screams, you could smell the burning.”
Four other students living in the neat and well-maintained house escaped injury and were taken for specialised counselling by Rhodes University experts.
Most of the house, which has burglar bars across all the windows, was destroyed in the blaze and the roof caved in.
A relative of the student and two other people arrived at the house yesterday morning before leaving with counselling pyschologist Dr Colleen Vassiliou from Rhodes.
The body of the unnamed student was found by firefighters in the badly damaged house and has not yet been identified by next of kin.
The four students who escaped the midnight blaze unharmed with the clothes they were wearing are also receiving counselling. Students and staff have responded to appeals to help them and donations of clothing have been received at the university's student affairs building.
The gutted house was cordoned off and under police guard yesterday while they waited for forensics experts to come from Port Elizabeth. The cause of the fire is unknown.
The dead student and his housemates were sleeping when the fire is thought to have broken out in the kitchen and quickly spread through the house.
Police spokeswoman Captain Mali Govender said an inquest docket had been opened after a male in his early twenties had been found in the house.
Rhodes University spokeswoman Catherine Deiner confirmed a student had “died tragically” in a digs fire last night.
Van der Merwe said even though the fire department responded quickly there was little they could do to save the student as the house was already burning fiercely when they arrived.
She said she heard explosions as the windows popped from the heat and had to rescue her elderly parents from a cottage near the burning house.
Retired farmer Peter Wilmot, who owns the house with his wife Allie, said the fire was a huge shock.
“It is very sad, a house can be replaced but not a life.”
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