13th June 2011

Monday, the day after Sunday, work work and more work, way behind on deadlines for another exhibition, gotta get going, so on that note, I'm out of here.

Friends who cheated fire

Roommates Maria Diala and Susan Seaward both believe they would have died along with the 12 patients who perished in a fire at the Struisbult Frail Care Centre in Springs this morning, were it not for their friendship.

The women came to each other’s rescue in the early hours.

Diala, 60, who is confined to a wheelchair, had smelt the smoke.

She heard the commotion outside their room and managed to wake Seaward, who is elderly and extremely hard of hearing, and is unlikely to have woken in time.

“My friend was fast asleep. So I shouted ‘Susan, Susan, wake up’, and shook her,” said Diala.

Seaward then helped Diala into her wheelchair and the pair pushed their way out of the building. “Thank God for Maria. Without her, who knows where I’d be now,” said Seaward as they waited to be taken for a medical check.