Cape Town - Young children were seen carrying buckets of water towards burning shacks on Wednesday morning in a frantic attempt to douse the flames of a fire which ripped through a section of Masiphumelele near Kommetjie.
This was the third fire to ravage the community in just over a month.
The community is still reeling from the massive fire that tore down hundreds of structures in the Z section and left more than 1800 people without homes on Monday, November 21.
The first fire occurred at the end of October and saw about 430 people displaced. While this fire was considerably smaller than the previous two, the community and organisations assisting the fire victims said there was a major concern behind the recurring blazes. Possible causes behind this ranged from load shedding to cooking and baking.
City’s Fire and Rescue Service spokesperson Jermaine Carelse said the fire incident was reported at about 10am on Wednesday of informal structures blazing in Pokela Road, Masiphumelele.
Carelse said 14 firefighters from the Fish Hoek and Kommetjie Road Fire crews attended to the blaze with two fire engines, a water tanker and skid unit until the fire was extinguished in an hour. No injuries or fatalities were reported.
“Preliminary reports state a total of eight structures destroyed and over 20 persons displaced,” Carelse said.
He said it was a very small incident compared to the previous ones. The City’s Fire and Rescue Service was unable to share if there was a recurring theme between the three recent fires in Masiphumelele as no official cause for any of the fires was established.
Community development worker Nelisa Dondolo was concerned that many more fires would erupt this summer in Masiphumelele and highlighted that when people were drunk, they sometimes liked to cook, which was one of the triggers in these situations.
“I think most of the time the cause of the fire is load shedding, people forget to switch off the appliances when they leave,” Dondolo said.
Humanitarian organisation Gift of the Givers stepped in once again to assist the fire victims after being made aware of the most recent fire incident.
Spokesperson Ali Sablay said, “this time of the year our teams are geared up for the fire season of the mother city”.
“Our teams will be assisting the families with food hampers, mattresses, blankets and toiletry packs.”
Sablay said the fires in Masiphumelele were recurring for the past 10 years and the situation was getting worse as the population increased and communities built on top of one another.
“Not just for the people of Masiphumele but to all those living in informal settlements, please do not light up or cook a meal when intoxicated; your negligence has a huge impact on vulnerable peoples lives.
“Try make sure all your appliances are plugged out during load shedding as when power comes back we find many structures catch alight,” Sablay said.