Bravery during deadly Sea Point fire

Black smoke poured through the stairwells of the Dorchester as residents fled for their lives. Harel Iluz had just escaped the burning Sea Point apartment block when people outside shouted that an elderly resident was still trapped on the upper floor. “I just stormed back in,” he said. 

Each floor became darker than the last, he said. “I was coughing. I couldn’t breathe.” Twice, thick smoke forced him back. As he prepared to give up, he heard a woman screaming somewhere above him. “I yelled, ‘Keep shouting. I can’t see you, but I can hear you. I’m going to follow your voice.’” 

The cries led him to a terrified nanny trapped with two young children. “She was hysterical. She didn’t know what to do. I grabbed the kids and told her to follow me.” Iluz carried the children through the smoke to safety before helping to calm both them and their caregiver. He later tried to return to rescue other residents, but the fire had become too intense. 

Eventually, he required oxygen treatment after inhaling large amounts of smoke. Although the two children survived, 93-year-old Sam Strime died from smoke inhalation, trapped in his apartment. 

The fire tore through the Dorchester on High Level Road on Thursday afternoon, 30 July, destroying several top-floor apartments, displacing dozens of residents, and leaving families mourning loved ones and homes. It prompted an outpouring of support from Cape Town’s Jewish community, even as antisemitic comments surfaced online in the tragedy’s aftermath. 

Iluz, one of three Israeli bachurim spending the year working in Cape Town’s Jewish community, said he had thought the smoke was something minor after another resident had knocked on his door and told him everyone had to evacuate. 

“I opened it up and I saw a lot of smoke coming in. He said, ‘They’re evacuating the building. Everybody needs to go.’” Only after reaching the street did he realise how serious the situation had become. “I looked at the building and thought, ‘okay, that is not something little.’” 

He immediately ran back inside on hearing that someone was still trapped on the upper floor. As he climbed the stairs, visibility disappeared. “The smoke was getting thicker and thicker.” He tried approaching from another side of the building, but burning debris was falling from the ceiling and thick black smoke made it impossible to see. 

“I was holding my breath and running up, but I couldn’t see anything.” After rescuing the nanny and children, Iluz returned once more in an effort to reach his neighbour. “Unfortunately, it was getting very rough. There was nothing more I could do.” 

Having lost almost all of his possessions, Iluz was overwhelmed by the support from the Jewish community. “Everybody offered stuff. We’re getting so many texts asking, ‘How can I help?’ People have offered accommodation. It’s amazing.” 

Shalom Perl, another of the Israeli educators who shared the apartment, said they had initially struggled to believe the news that their building was on fire. Fortunately, they had been away organising a school event and had taken their tefillin, laptops, and other essential belongings with them. But their passports were in the safe in their flat. 

Reflecting on the experience afterwards, Perl said he had shared an important lesson with the children he teaches. “A situation happens in your life. You can’t control it. What you can control is how you react. 

“We choose to smile.” 

For David Silverman, the fire unfolded differently. He was in the middle of a work meeting when his phone buzzed with a voice note from the caretaker of his mother’s apartment building. “It was two seconds long,” he said. “‘David, the apartment is on fire.’” 

Believing his 83-year-old mother was trapped inside, Silverman sprinted towards the Dorchester without even collecting his car. As he approached, he saw smoke billowing from the top floor, where his mother lived. He repeatedly tried to force his way into the building, using a fire hose in an attempt to cool the entrance before climbing the stairs. 

“I got about five steps into the back of the building and it was too hot, and there was too much smoke. I couldn’t see anything. I was screaming for my mother the whole time.” He desperately tried phoning her as he searched. 

Only later did a location-tracking application reveal that she wasn’t inside the building. When she eventually answered her phone, she told him she had spontaneously gone to have her hair done shortly before the fire had broken out. “As soon as I found out she wasn’t in the building, that’s when I left the stairwell,” he said. 

Although relieved that she had escaped unharmed, Silverman said almost everything she owned had been destroyed. “For her, it’s everything she had. Every item in her home has a memory. Now it’s gone.” The community had immediately rallied around his family. “The community has been unbelievable.” 

Kevin Strime was driving through rush-hour traffic from Pinelands when he learned that his father, Sam Strime, was trapped in the burning building. “My daughter phoned me and said, ‘Zaida’s building is on fire.’” 

As he fought to reach Sea Point, his phone rang again. “They had just found his body and he had passed away.” Kevin believes his father spent his final moments trying to help others. 

A witness later told him they had seen his father come onto the back balcony while a nanny below was desperately trying to protect a young child. “I think he either went back into the flat because he was overwhelmed by the smoke or he went back to get the dog,” Kevin said. 

Firefighters found the 93-year-old in the bathroom with his phone still in his hand. “I’m sure he was trying to phone me at the same time I was trying to phone him.” Although devastated, Kevin said there was some comfort in knowing his father hadn’t suffered burns. “He didn’t get burned. He must have passed out very quickly. The smoke inhalation just takes you.” 

He described his father as a gentle, selfless man who still drove himself to work every day, helping at his son’s construction business and spending time on Jewish school campuses. “Hundreds of people have phoned from all over the world,” he said. “They all said he was an absolute gentleman. He always put everyone else first.” 

The response from emergency services and the Jewish community had also been remarkable. “The firefighters, the police, CSO, everybody has been unbelievable. We are so lucky to be Jewish.” 

That sentiment was echoed across the community in the days that followed the fire. Cape South African Jewish Board of Deputies executive director Daniel Bloch said community organisations had mobilised within hours of the fire. 

Working alongside CSO Cape Town, Jewish Community Services, volunteers, and community members, they arranged emergency accommodation, counselling, food, water, and practical support for displaced residents. 

“The impact on residents has been significant,” Bloch said. “Some have lost everything, while others were more fortunate and will be able to return to their apartments or retrieve belongings that were untouched by the fire.” 

Community members have launched fundraising initiatives, including a BackaBuddy campaign, to help families replace essential belongings and begin rebuilding their lives. Bloch said the tragedy had highlighted the importance of strong community institutions. 

“In difficult circumstances, we once again saw the very best of our community, people putting aside their own concerns to help others, opening their homes, giving their time, providing resources, and simply being there for those who needed a helping hand.” 

Sadly, as messages of support flooded in, some social media users responded very differently. News24’s reporting on Strime’s death attracted a series of antisemitic comments. 

One commenter questioned where Jewish people “originally” came from before living in Sea Point. Another claimed, “The media is really owned by you know who.” After another user challenged the remark, the commenter replied, “Oh hello Zionist.” 

Another post simply read, “Love this for them”, apparently celebrating a fire that had claimed a life and left dozens of people without homes. Other readers challenged the comments and called for them to be removed. 

While investigators continue determining the cause of the fire, survivors say they have been sustained by the generosity shown by neighbours, strangers, and the wider Jewish community. 

For Perl, the experience reinforced a lesson he hopes to carry long after the apartments have been rebuilt. “If your house is getting burned,” he said with a smile, “think this is a nice location. You have Table Mountain, you have the sea, and you have a lovely community.”