As thick smoke filled the air from a raging fire, and approximately 4 000 University of Cape Town (UCT) students prepared to evacuate their residences, a group of Baxter Hall residence students stood by helplessly and watched while one of their peers struggled to breathe – fearing the onset of an asthma attack, but not knowing what to do.
“It was a terrifying experience. I couldn’t handle to watch it, and I just wanted to get out of there as fast as I could,” said first-year political science and sociology student Lelona Jikijela.
But the moment fellow student Tatum Mentoor walked into the room – which Jikijela said was probably a few seconds later, but felt like hours to her – she knew “exactly what to do” to help the student.
‘A stressful situation’
When Mentoor stepped into the reading room and saw that the student was struggling to breathe, Jikijela said, she looked her straight in the eye and gave her strict but gentle instructions. Mentoor told the student to raise her arms above her head and to take several deep breaths.
Mentoor also told her to remain calm because stress and anxiety would aggravate her situation. She then gave her some water, and slowly, Jikijela said, the student’s breathing improved, and she started to look and feel better.
“I stood there in complete disbelief. Several highly stressful situations were taking place around us.”
“I stood there in complete disbelief. Several highly stressful situations were taking place around us – a huge fire and an evacuation, and one of my peers was having an asthma attack. It was so scary,” Jikijela said.
“But I was blown away by Tatum, how she just took control of the situation, calmed the student down, and got her breathing under control. She was such a natural – a real-life heroine.”
A simple act of kindness
For Mentoor’s part, she said that if it meant that she could help someone, she would do it all over again.
The second-year social work student, who is also asthmatic, said she knew her fellow student was headed for an asthma attack as soon as she saw her. And she kicked into survival mode immediately.
“I can’t even begin to describe the stress we were all under, and I knew the stress was causing [the asthma attack]. There was smoke everywhere. Because I’m asthmatic, I knew she was having an asthma attack, and I knew what to do to help her,” Mentoor said.
After the student completed the necessary breathing techniques and had taken a few puffs of her inhaler, her breathing began to normalise. She was also “a lot calmer”.
“When you’re having an asthma attack, you start to panic. And when panic sets in, no one can think straight. You just need to be calm and breathe, and that’s what I told her. I would do it for anyone,” she said.
Mentoor said that as the evacuees were moved from campus to temporary accommodation sites around the city, she remained in touch with the student to check on her. She was happy to hear that she was feeling herself again.
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The Centre for Curating the Archive, in association with Michaelis Galleries (UCT) and UCT Libraries will stage a memorial exhibition marking the one-year anniversary of the tragic Jagger Library fire at the Michaelis Galleries. The exhibition will open to the public on Wednesday, 20 April 2022.
In an email to UCT students, Vice-Chancellor Professor Mamokgethi Phakeng said:
“Thank you for your patience as we seek ways to return to full academic activity at the University of Cape Town under COVID-19 regulations. Our first priority is to ensure the health and safety of everyone who needs to return to campus buildings.”
UCT is deeply grateful to all the donors who supplied food and other essential items for our students, and to everyone who has so generously offered other forms of support and assistance.
Everyone who would like to support the #UCTFire emergency relief fund is urged to please make financial donations to UCT through the UCT Alumni Ways to Give web page.
Donations can also be made by EFT using the details below:
Account name: UCT Donations Account
Bank: Standard Bank of South Africa
Branch code: Rondebosch Branch, 025009
Account number: 07 152 2387
Swift code: SBZAZAJJ
Please include your donor name if you so wish, as well as the reference for your donation, e.g. Name Surname, #UCTFire.