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TV personality escapes fire

Johannesburg - TV and radio personality Mariëtta Kruger grabbed her dogs and ran after a fire started in her home in Northcliff, Johannesburg, on Wednesday.

Kruger, linked to Agriculture Today on SABC2 and a former Afrikaans newsreader on the same channel, was alone in her house when the fire started at about 15:45 in the study on the top floor.

She was watching television when she heard bottles breaking. She went to the garden - on a balcony on the middle floor - to determine where the sound came from.

"I looked up and saw the windows of the study burst and fall to the ground. I grabbed the dogs and ran."

Kruger and her three dogs, Seina, Snoekie and Katrientjie, emerged unscathed.

Kruger shares the three-storey house in the Villa del Monté complex with Marlise Scheepers, news editor for Sondag, and Ryno Badenhorst, a Namibian who works in South Africa and lives in the house every two weeks.

Kiko, Scheepers' one-year-old hairless sphinx, suffocated in the fire.

Relatives and friends of Scheepers comforted her and Kruger outside the house on Wednesday.

Many problems

According to Otsile Kobue of the fire department, the fire was extinguished in about 20 minutes.

"When we arrived, the roof had already collapsed in two rooms and the fire was well underway. We could extinguish the fire before it spread to the rest of the house."

The study and Scheepers' bedroom were destroyed.

Kruger and Badenhorst's bedrooms suffered smoke damage while other parts of the house suffered water damage.

"The cause of the fire is still unknown," Kobue said.

Scheepers said there are many problems in the complex. Hydrants are missing on the premises and there are open power outlets.  The complex entrance is also very narrow; only one fire truck could enter the complex and could not turn around due to a lack of space.

"If everything was right at the premises, the fire department would've been able to reach and save the house quicker," said Scheepers.

Scheepers and Kruger stayed with friends on Wednesday night.

 
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