By Own Correspondent- Four people escaped death by a whisker when the house they were sleeping in was set on fire in a RTGS$1 row.

The four who include two Royden Farm Primary School pupils, their mother and a physically challenged grandmother escaped death after their step father locked them in a hut from outside and set it on fire in Zvimba East.

The house was razed down last Friday morning in the inferno and the suspect Aleck Grant, 56, has since been arrested and assisting police with investigations.

Narrating the ordeal, Margaret Zhuwawu, 49, said her husband Grant requested for RTGS$2.50 and Zhuwawu only had RTGS$1 which she gave him.

“The horror started after my husband asked for $2,50 bus fare so that he delivers his grandchildren’s clothes in Sam Levy area.

“I advised him that I had no money besides a single dollar for today’s vegetable relish at night. He forced me to hand over this dollar, when he came back late, I asked him to give me back that dollar so we send a child to buy vegetables for our day’s meal before sleeping.

“He refused to give me saying I was prostituting with teachers from Rodney school, where I often do piece jobs for our family’s sole survival means,” Zhuwawu said.

She said she went into the bedroom when she realised that Grant was becoming violent.

“I went to sleep in another room and hid there with two toddlers and he locked the door from outside shouting that he was going to kill all of us today.

“In seconds, we discovered that the house was on fire and there was nowhere to escape through as the door was now tightly locked from outside using chains.

“I managed to force my children through a very tinny door space near the door.

“It was horrific like movie as my children were screaming jumping from one wall to the other with dropping roofs and ashes all over the floor,” she said.

“Thank God, we heard people forcing the door to open and they saved my life.

“We heard Grant shouting that he wanted us dead. Imagine there was also my mother who is crippled.

“My husband has been violent even during our first marriage times and I left him for that.

“I later got married and had two more sons; these are the boys that my husband locked and wanted to burn us in there,” Zhuwawu said.

One of the rescuers Aleck Chiwawa, 32, said domestic violence was rife in the area.

“The police must come and camp here because many women and children are being sexually abused day and night here, even those organisations which educate human beings on how to live as civilised community must quickly come here before many deaths and property damages happen soon,” Chiwawa said.-HMetro