Kimberley - A Kimberley couple, who was fondly known as a modern day “township Romeo and Juliet”, died after a fire ripped through their shack in Ivory Park.
Neels “Witpen” Regard died on Sunday night after the fire broke out in the shack where he was sleeping with his wife, Martha Albertus. She died in hospital on Tuesday.
According to community members, Regard died while trying to protect his wife from the flames.
Albertus sustained serious burn injuries to her back and head and was admitted to hospital but, according to family members, she was declared brain dead and died on Tuesday.
The couple was known as a modern day “township Romeo and Juliet” due to their “undying love and dedication to each other”.
The fire started at around 10.30pm on Sunday night when a candle fell over and ended up under the bed where the “celebrity couple”, as residents described them, were sleeping.
One neighbour said she woke up at around 10.30pm on Sunday and ran out of her shack to see the couple’s shack “engulfed in flames.”
While waiting for authorities to arrive, members of the community attempted to extinguish the flames with buckets of water and also tried to force open the shack’s door, which was locked from the inside, but their efforts were in vain.
They eventually broke down one of the walls of the shack and managed to pull Regard’s burnt body out of the fire.
“Albertus was still alive but she was badly burnt, especially across the back of her body and head and we did not have much hope that she would survive,” the woman said.
She added that Albertus was “hysterical” after hearing that her husband had died.
“I’m alive, I’m alive, I am not dead... where is my husband... is my husband dead...” she screamed after being rescued.
She was taken to hospital but was declared dead late on Tuesday afternoon.
“We will definitely miss our own Romeo and Juliet, who loved fiercely, were real partners in crime and would do anything to protect each other,” a friend of the couple, Sarah Brand, said.
Other neighbours said that the two were still “happy and in high spirits” on Sunday evening and were seen sitting outside on their stoep before going to bed.
Others blamed the fire brigade for arriving “more than an hour after being called” and stated that the couple might still have been alive if help had come sooner.
Police spokeswoman, Lieutenant Colonel Dimakatso Mooi, on Tuesday confirmed that a 41-year-old man was declared dead after his shack caught fire in Ivory Park.
“It is suspected that the fire was caused by a candle that was left unattended. Police have opened an inquest,” she added.
Diamond Fields Advertiser