Durban — An employee has blamed his fear of snakes for a fire in a container where he lives in a scrapyard.
Reaction Unit SA (Rusa) spokesperson Prem Balram said that a fear of snakes resulted in a fire at a scrapyard in Oaklands, north of Durban, on Tuesday night.
Balram said that residents reported a fire to Rusa at about 9.09pm.
On arrival, reaction officers discovered a container engulfed in flames, Balram said.
“It was established that an employee who resides in the container dozed off to sleep before he could extinguish a candle.
“When he woke up, he discovered a snake on his bed.
“The man fled from the container in fear of the snake.
“When he returned he found the container on fire,” Balram said.
He said the fire was extinguished using buckets of water.
People who saw the Facebook post reacted with humour.
Shannon-May Joubert said now would probably not be a good time to tell the employee that the snake survived the fire without injury.
Tammy Govender asked if the snake was arrested for arson.
“Seems it set the fire on purpose to get rid of the humans on its property.”
Faye George said it was obvious there were snakes in a scrapyard.
Sphindile Dadah said: “He must find that snake and make it pay for the damaged container.”
Gavin Damien Peters said from snakes in a plane to snakes in a container.
Meanwhile, earlier on Tuesday, Rusa responded to a fire where the upper level of a flat behind the Waterloo Spar in Waterloo caught alight.
Balram said they were called out to the scene at about 3.24pm and found that the fire was extinguished using buckets of water by residents.
“According to the homeowner, she was in the process of preparing supper when the fire started on the unoccupied upper level of her home.
“She and her two children aged one and three managed to flee.
“Two bedrooms were extensively damaged,” Balram said.
He said no injuries were reported.
Balram added that the circumstances leading up to the fire were not confirmed.
Daily News