Gas cylinder explodes, mother, toddlers critical

MBABANE – A mother and her two toddlers, aged one and two, are in critical condition after they were burnt by a fire caused by a gas cylinder explosion yesterday morning.

The children’s father is reported to have escaped, although also with burn wounds, and he is allegedly the one who caused the explosion after a quarrel with the mother in their tiny one-room flat at Msunduza.

The father is said to have returned home in a questionable state of sobriety and got into an argument with his lover which resulted in a candle used to light the flatfalling into a nearby leaky generator.

The family is said to have kept the generator inside the flat, measuring approximately 2.5 metres by three metres, to power a television.

"There was petrol leaking from the generator and when the candle fell, a fire was soon ignited. The fire quickly extended to the gas cylinder, which then exploded," a source said.

The source said the incident happened at around 1am.

The children were reportedly asleep at the time and the mother is said to have been burnt while trying to get them out of the burning house.

"We were awakened by screams and shouts for help and when we rushed to see what was happening, we found the house ablaze. The mother and the two children had been badly burnt," a neighbour, identified only as Bebe said.

Neighbours are said to have responded to the shouts for help and buckets of water were used to try and put out the fire but the damage had already been done.

Fire and Emergency personnel reportedly arrived at the scene but the neighbours had already dealt with the blaze. When the Times team visited the burnt house, nearly everything had been burnt to ashes and the bed was affected the most.

The smell of petrol was still in the air and some of the things salvaged from the inferno had been removed and placed outside.

Police PRO Superintendent Wendy Hleta confirmed the incident and said the mother and two children are in critical condition at the Mbabane Government Hospital.

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