I was eight when I got burnt. I was living in Harare in a house and we called our cousins to visit. It was nearly Christmas. It was time to sleep and my brother ( 18) was sleeping in the kitchen and the cousins in a room with me. My mother’s ex-boyfriend came and was angry because my mother didn’t love him, because he was cheating with another woman. He didn’t know my cousins were at home. He was holding a petrol bomb and some matches. He said he was going to kill the 1st, 2nd and 3rd born children- I was the 4th born and youngest. He put the petrol bomb in the house. When the fire came closer my sister jumped on the bed, my mother was calling me- one of her fingers was stuck to the wall. The man ran away to his family- he already had a wife. The ambulance came, there was a fence I wanted to get through, my skin was hanging. They said ‘don’t hug her, you are making her worse’. Seven people were burnt, my brother was okay because he was sleeping in the kitchen. There was lots of screaming.
fireinmylens 