Durban — A fire expert has refuted two scenarios that have been retold by the man on trial in the Durban High Court for allegedly setting alight and killing his family as unlikely.
Kista Chetty is charged with the 2021 murders of his wife Elisha Naidoo, 39, his 13-year-old daughter Jadene, his 9-year-old son Jordan, 8-year-old daughter Aarav and his 3-year-old son Aldrin.
At the time of the incident, the family lived in a bedroom that they rented at a house on Kidstone Place in Phoenix.
Chetty’s brother-in-law Deon Naidoo and others lived in the lounge of the house.
According to fire expert Warrant Officer Siphelele Simphiwe Dube, attached to the fire subsection, who testified on Wednesday, the fire was deliberately caused after petrol was poured in the vicinity of the bedroom door.
He said that the injuries sustained by the accused were a result of him setting the fire and his burn injuries were indicative of this.
In his not-guilty statement, the accused said that he had wanted to kill himself by burning himself with petrol inside the bedroom.
He said he poured a little petrol into a cap then on to his shirt and set himself alight. Then, when he realised he was burning he took off his T-shirt and it landed on the container of petrol and flames got bigger and bigger.
Earlier, testimony from Dr Thembelihle Jili, who examined Chetty in the emergency room of the Mahatma Gandhi Hospital, was that he wanted to kill himself after having an argument with his wife; he poured petrol on himself and set himself alight and his wife pulled him by the jacket and the fire spread throughout the room.
Both these scenarios were put to Dube, who said that they were unlikely from looking at the evidence after the fire.
“According to my evidence, the first version is not likely. If you pour petrol on to yourself and light yourself even the remains of your burnt clothes will stick on your body.
“You should have burn injuries consistent with where you poured the petrol … not only on your hands and face, like in this case, which to me is an indication that he was in the vapour cloud.
“That’s why he sustained injuries to the hands and face because the face and hands were exposed to the vapour cloud. Also, the neck was exposed so you’d expect injuries on the neck as well. When he said he threw the T-shirt on to the container, depending on whether the container was open, you’d have vapours escaping through the mouth of the container. There would be a rapid burning of the vapours until the vapours started burning only on the mouth of the container.
“The second version is highly unlikely as already he was on fire, if the room was already filled with vapours (from the petrol) that fire should have continued on him.”
Dube said that his investigation had revealed that a container was used to pour the petrol, he explained that once petrol was poured it created a vapour cloud that filled a room and it mixed with oxygen that ignited a fire once a match was struck.
“The person within the cloud will get burn injuries to places exposed to vapour clouds such as your face and hands. If you are decanting using a container there will be spillage so you might have some liquid on your hands and face resulting in first to second-degree burn injuries. In the photos you can see the accused has burn injuries to his face and hands and not his legs. The hands were more burnt than the face which could be an indication that when he was decanting some of the liquid it fell on his hands.”
Jili testified that the accused had second-degree burns on his face and hands and first to second-degree burns to his stomach.
The trial continues.
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