Home-alone kids accidentally light up family's harvest
A family of seven was left reeling from shock on Friday afternoon after two children, both aged five, who had been left alone at home, set two mahangu grain storage baskets containing this year’s harvest on fire.
The incident occurred at Omalengefo village in Oshikoto’s Omuntele constituency.
During a visit to the family yesterday, grandparents Jason Amulungu and his wife, Juuso, told Namibian Sun what had transpired.
According to the unemployed couple, they left the house at around 14:00 on Friday to attend a memorial service at a house about one kilometre away.
“We cooked for them and then my wife and I decided to go to the memorial service. It’s not that far from here," Jason said.
"We left them at home, hoping that the other children who went to school would come and stay with them,” he explained.
“While at the memorial service, at around 16:00, we received a call from one of our neighbours that our house was on fire and we immediately came home. When we arrived, we found our neighbours putting out the fire, but the damage was already done.”
Accidental fire
He said it appears that after they left the house, one of the children picked up a wooden stick and placed it on the still-warm ashes where food had been prepared.
“The child took the lit-up [piece of wood] and went with it to the area where the mahangu grain storage baskets were,” he said.
“When one of the baskets started to go up in flames, the children ran to one of our neighbours’s houses. They did not find anyone there and they proceeded to another neighbour’s house, where they got help.”
Neighbours and members of the community immediately rushed to the house to put out the fire, he said.
“At first, they [the children] lied that they saw someone setting the baskets alight, but as we interrogated them, they told us the truth.”
The couple said the damage included about N$5 000 they estimate was spent during the ploughing, planting and weeding of their mahangu fields.
The two mahangu baskets, known as eeshisha, that went up in flames each cost N$1 500.
No life lost
Despite the loss, the couple said that they are grateful that no lives were lost and that their homestead did not suffer any further damage.
“We are sad to have lost our harvest, but we thank God that no life was lost or the property. If there was no water at home, the whole homestead could have burnt to the ground,” they said.
Despite being recipients of the government drought relief programme, they called upon good Samaritans to assist them, as the little they managed to salvage from the remains of the destroyed baskets is too little to last even until the end of this month.
“We are calling upon good Samaritans to assist us in any way they can,” the family pleaded.
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The incident occurred at Omalengefo village in Oshikoto’s Omuntele constituency.
During a visit to the family yesterday, grandparents Jason Amulungu and his wife, Juuso, told Namibian Sun what had transpired.
According to the unemployed couple, they left the house at around 14:00 on Friday to attend a memorial service at a house about one kilometre away.
“We cooked for them and then my wife and I decided to go to the memorial service. It’s not that far from here," Jason said.
"We left them at home, hoping that the other children who went to school would come and stay with them,” he explained.
“While at the memorial service, at around 16:00, we received a call from one of our neighbours that our house was on fire and we immediately came home. When we arrived, we found our neighbours putting out the fire, but the damage was already done.”
Accidental fire
He said it appears that after they left the house, one of the children picked up a wooden stick and placed it on the still-warm ashes where food had been prepared.
“The child took the lit-up [piece of wood] and went with it to the area where the mahangu grain storage baskets were,” he said.
“When one of the baskets started to go up in flames, the children ran to one of our neighbours’s houses. They did not find anyone there and they proceeded to another neighbour’s house, where they got help.”
Neighbours and members of the community immediately rushed to the house to put out the fire, he said.
“At first, they [the children] lied that they saw someone setting the baskets alight, but as we interrogated them, they told us the truth.”
The couple said the damage included about N$5 000 they estimate was spent during the ploughing, planting and weeding of their mahangu fields.
The two mahangu baskets, known as eeshisha, that went up in flames each cost N$1 500.
No life lost
Despite the loss, the couple said that they are grateful that no lives were lost and that their homestead did not suffer any further damage.
“We are sad to have lost our harvest, but we thank God that no life was lost or the property. If there was no water at home, the whole homestead could have burnt to the ground,” they said.
Despite being recipients of the government drought relief programme, they called upon good Samaritans to assist them, as the little they managed to salvage from the remains of the destroyed baskets is too little to last even until the end of this month.
“We are calling upon good Samaritans to assist us in any way they can,” the family pleaded.
[email protected]
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