The fire that destroyed all of Jeremy Petersen’s kickboxing gear is still a sore point for the martial arts instructor several months after half his house burned down.
Petersen, who has been running Mitchell’s Plain Kickboxing Club since 2012, had built up almost R400 000 worth of cardio, kickboxing and muscle-building sports equipment through dozens of fundraisers but lost all of it in one night when a feud between his neighbours ended up with him finding his garage accidentally petrol-bombed.
The R400 000 is just an estimate, though, because when Petersen needed to do an inventory of the lost equipment for the mayor’s office, he found the process too painful to finish.
“Three weeks before that we bought equipment for an upcoming tournament and it was still in the packaging that weekend. It also went up in smoke,” Petersen said, wincing at the memory.
Donation
The reason the mayor’s office wanted an inventory was because they were planning to donate to Petersen’s rebuild.
On Thursday, 4 December, the mayor’s representative Marvin Sampson donated R50 000 to the club at the premises they rent for training in Westridge.
Petersen said the donation will be used as capital for fundraisers and to replace the equipment that was lost in the fire.
The fire
The fire began when three men who were fighting with his neighbour used the roof of his garage in Lentegeur as a launch pad for a petrol bomb they planned to throw over the wall.
Exact details are unclear, but witnesses say the men failed to launch the bomb and it went off on Petersen’s garage instead, he said. All his equipment, which included a treadmill, bikes, weights, and kickboxing equipment, was completely destroyed and the fire raged through half of his home before it was successfully doused.
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This was a huge setback for the club, which at the time, was working towards getting their own premises since the space they are renting at the Methodist Church in Park Avenue was only available when there are no church events in the hall.
“You can’t only train twice a week for a sport like this,” Petersen said.
Not having a permanent venue also means that Petersen has to cart the equipment to and from lessons.
Restarts
This is not the first time Petersen has had to completely start over. Prior to starting the club, which is the only kickboxing club in Mitchell’s Plain, he worked full-time as an industrial engineer and martial arts was his hobby.
“When my business went belly up, I decided to put my energy into my real passion. I have 30 years’ experience in martial arts,” he said, adding that the club had several changes of venue and name before they settled at the Methodist Church.
Petersen has since added a sports science degree notch to his belt and the club has about 15 professional fighters, dozens of trainees, the youngest of which is nine, and several members who joined just for fitness but are not interested in fighting competitively.
Prior to the donation, Petersen had been slowly rebuilding his equipment with help from other clubs. He bought what second-hand equipment he was able to and asked clubs to donate their broken equipment to him. A friend in Paarl repaired it for free.
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