A blaze at 5am on Monday left 24 people homeless in Green Point informal settlement, Khayelitsha. Photo: Vincent Lali
4 March 2019
“The fire caught us unaware because we didn’t sniff smoke of burning food or something before it engulfed our shacks,” said Nontlanthla Sambu.
At 5am on Monday morning, a blaze in Green Point informal settlement, Khayelitsha, destroyed eight shacks and partially damaged one more leaving 24 people without homes, according to Mandy Thomas, spokesperson for Disaster Risk Management Centre.
She said the Informal Housing Department was at the scene; the solid waste department had been requested to remove debris, and SASSA to provide humanitarian relief.
“After one resident shouted, ‘Fire, fire!’, we all got out of our shacks and saw huge flames and smoke rising from one shack,” said Sambu. “Our efforts to stop the fire failed; it was already too strong.”
“I went to a nearby tap, but it didn’t produce water. I ended up scooping sand with buckets and throwing it at the fire,” said Ntobeko Mzaci. “If we had water, we would have contained the fire ourselves long before firefighters arrived.”
Msondezi Mbumba said, “Because water taps are far, residents desperate to get water used my shack roof as a shortcut to water taps. Now my roof has caved in and some of my belongings are damaged [by Monday’s rain].”
Community leader Patricia Mzozo said, “Thugs have stolen our taps and the City has not yet re-installed them. We are struggling to get water … I arrived here in 1993, but I still stay in a shack.”
Ward councillor Thando Pimpi said fire fighters struggled to access the blaze. “If there was a way into the informal settlement, they would have come in easily and saved shacks,” he said.
Linda Nkantini, whose shack was the first to catch fire, left her home on Sunday for Blouberg Sands, where she is a domestic worker. She lost all her belongings, her bed, fridge and clothes for which she still owes Lewis Furniture Store and Edgars money. “I have nothing except the clothes I’m wearing,” she said.
Jermaine Carelse of the City said the cause of the fire is unknown. Carelse said 26 staff and seven firefighting vehicles had responded. “One adult male sustained minor injuries,” she said.
Akhona Ncune, who lives with her two children, said the fire destroyed her TV, cupboard, bed and clothes. The smoke was unbearable, but she managed to rescue her SASSA cards and her children’s school uniforms and books. “I don’t know where I will sleep tonight,” said Ncune.
“If the fire occurred after I had already left for work, my kid would have burned to death,” said Thandiwe Chewu. She has been living in the informal settlement since 1992, and until Monday she had always escaped shack fires.