A family of five, including four children died after a fire ripped through a house in Ormonde on Wednesday morning, Johannesburg Emergency Services said.
“They were all found dead in the kitchen of the two bedroom house,” spokesperson Synock Matobako said.
“Indications are that the children and their 31-year-old mother were trying to escape when they were engulfed by flames in the kitchen.”
The children were aged two, three, four and a six-months old.
“They were two girls, and two boys.”
Family members gathered outside the house shortly after the fire was doused.
“They are hysterical after we told them what happened,” Matobako said.
The roof of the house had also collapsed in the blaze, but the walls were still standing, he said.
Emergency services were alerted after neighbours noticed the blaze.
“The fire may have started in one of the bedrooms, but we are still investigating the cause.”
– SAPA