More than 300 people were left homeless after their shacks were destroyed by fires across the city yesterday. No one was injured.
The city’s Fire and Rescue and Disaster Risk Management teams and the Human Settlements Department responded to blazes in Seawinds, Athlone, Milnerton, Langa and Philippi, Disaster Management spokesman Wilfred Solomons-Johannes said.
“At 3.25am fire gutted 60 informal structures at the Overcome Heights informal settlement in Seawinds and 240 people were left homeless. The fire also damaged the overhead electricity infrastructure that caused an interruption in the power supply. Technicians are restoring the service in the area,” he said.
Rescue workers also attended to the scene of a fire in Athlone, in which one house was damaged, and about 30 minutes later six shacks were destroyed by a fire at the Doornback informal settlement near Milnerton, leaving 10 people homeless.
After 8am, 27 structures were destroyed when a fire broke out on the corner of Washington Road and Vanguard Drive in Langa, displacing 69 people. In Philippi, one person was left homeless when a shack caught alight on Highfield Road at 10.51am. - The Weekend Argus