Cape Town - One person died and 60 were left homeless after a fire broke out in a Philippi settlement in the early hours of on Tuesday morning.
Fire and Rescue spokesman Theo Layne said they were notified of the blaze just after 1am. “We attended to a fire in Marcus Garvey, Eisleben Road in Philippi where 20 to 30 structures were destroyed.
“About 60 people were displaced and one person sustained fatal burns.” He said several wood and iron structures were destroyed. Layne said four fire engines, four water tankers, one rescue vehicle and 30 firefighters were deployed to the area, and it took two hours to extinguish the fire.
“The gender of the deceased is not yet (officially) known due to the extent of the burns. “The cause of the fire is undetermined at the stage.”
However community leader Nowethu Sautsana said it was an elderly woman who had died in the fire.
He said it was not the first time the Marcus Garvey informal settlement had been ravaged by a fire.
“The last time we had a fire that killed a person was in 2008. Again last night an elderly woman died from the fire. No one knows how the fire started, but it came from the house where the person died.”
Sautsana said some people were already rebuilding their homes from material they salvaged, while others were still waiting for starter kits from disaster risk management.
Police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Andrè Traut said a death inquest case docket had been registered. The identity of the victim had yet to be established.
Cape Argus