A 13-year-old girl has been burned to death in Dirkiesdorp and three other children have been hospitalised in the wake of a massive veld fire which has destroyed tens of thousands of hectares of grazing in Mpumalanga.
Eastern Highveld area commissioner Dumezweni Chiliza on Wednesday said the girl burnt to death inside a house in the Morgenzon area on Tuesday and 20 others sustained burn wounds.
Five hundred people were taken to hospitals in Bethal, Ermelo and Standerton where they were treated before being discharged. Two people were airlifted to Johannesburg’s Milpark Hospital where they are in a serious condition. Some 600 sheep, 100 head of cattle and an unknown number of horses and game animals were killed in the blaze.
Two people were seriously injured in a head-on collision after thick smoke reduced visibility on the Kinross/Louis Trichardt road, Chiliza said. – Sapa