Rescuers risk lives to save pup

Sonja van Buul

Vanderbijlpark - Despite deadly danger, a paramedic and a member of the fire brigade saved a little cross-breed puppy, Max, from a fire on Tuesday night.

Riaan Denton, 34, from ER24 and Erna Redinger, 33, a station officer at the Emfuleni fire station, were running towards a burning garden cottage just before 22:00 when they heard a noise at a side entrance.

The garden cottage of Sylvia Moiloa, 18, a shop assistant, had caught fire shortly before, presumably due to an electrical short circuit in her bedroom.

"The young woman had apparently been in the living room, watching TV, when she realised her cottage was on fire," said Derrick Banks, ER24 spokesperson.

Frightened

According to Banks, Moiloa cut her foot when she kicked a window out in order to get out of the cottage.

"Erna used her shoulder to break open the wooden side door and we could see Max vaguely through the dense smoke, looking very scared in his basket in a corner," said Denton on Wednesday.

At that stage, the flames were shooting high up into the sky while colleagues from the Emfuleni fire station tried to extinguish the blaze.

"We called Max but he didn't want to come to us, so we ran to him," Denton said.

He said they crept through the smoke to reach Max.

"The smoke was very thick which meant we had visibility and breathing problems."

According to Denton, he and Erna grabbed the 4-month-old puppy and soon placed him in the safe hands of a fire brigade colleague, before he and another ER24 paramedic treated Moiloa.

Thousands of rands worth of damages

They took Moiloa to the Emfuleni Medi-Clinic in Vanderbijlpark where the cuts on her foot were treated.

Max inhaled smoke, but was "his old self again" soon thereafter.

Thousands of rands worth of damage was caused according to Kenneth Kubashe, the home owner, and Moiloa lost all her belongings in the fire.

Kubashe said Moiloa has been left with only the pyjamas she was wearing.

"She's doing well and she's very grateful that both her and Max's lives were saved," he said.

- Beeld