SPCA carer loses everything in fire

GEORGE NEWS - For many in George, Vuyo Klaasen (33), an animal carer at the Garden Route SPCA (GRSPCA), is the friendly, energetic face that greets them when they visit.

Always ready with a smile and a kind word for the animals in his care, Klaasen gives his all every single day.

"If you follow our page, you've seen Vuyo," the GRSPCA wrote on Facebook. "He never holds back, never does anything halfway. That's just who he is."

But last week, tragedy struck. His home in Zone 6, Ramaphosa, Thembalethu, was severely damaged when a fire ripped through six informal homes in the area. Now he and his neighbours urgently need help. The cause of the fire has not been confirmed, but it is believed to be due to an electrical malfunction.

To make matters worse, in the chaos of trying to save what he could and douse the flames, Vuyo stepped on a nail, puncturing a hole in his foot. Despite losing most of his belongings and hobbling around post-tetanus injection, he still showed up for work the next day, smiling as always and tending to the animals who rely on him.

"I couldn't stay at home. My shack was partially destroyed, and my neighbours lost everything. I had nothing to rebuild with, so I decided to come to work and be with the dogs," he said.

The fire broke out at about 02:00 on Monday 4 August. When the fire department arrived, the residents had already extinguished most of the flames using buckets of water. Fortunately, there were no injuries or children involved.

Vuyo recalls it as "the quickest thing that felt very long." He and the others were woken by shouts of "Fire!" and rushed to help their neighbour in whose home the blaze had started. "We had to wake him and pull him from the furnace. I don't want to sound dramatic, but I'm still in shock. Just to see how quickly a fire can destroy things is insane. I don't want that to happen to anyone," he says.

The fire left nine residents, six men and three women, with only the clothes on their backs. "My neighbour walked around in a karate outfit for a couple of days before I took him some donated clothes. He was making a joke, saying: 'Look, I'm a brown belt!'" Klaasen laughs. "It was all he had to wear."

The SPCA has since donated two unused sheds to help Klaasen and his neighbours start over, but there's still an urgent need for essentials. They are appealing to the community for donations of clothing, bedding, food, household items, building materials and anything else they could use.