Sixty people were left homeless when a fire ripped through Imizamo Yethu informal settlement and gutted 20 homes on Sunday night.
The affected residents said it was one of the worst fires they had ever experienced as they lost almost everything, with firefighters battling to access their homes.
Fikile Ntsimango said he got a double blow when his shack caught fire. He was also a victim of the fire which destroyed a considerable section of the Mandela Park informal settlement, a fire which left thousands of Imizamo Yethu residents homeless.
Ntsimango’s belongings, which he managed to save from Sunday’s fire, were stolen by thieves.
He is now homeless and depends on friends for a place to sleep, but his biggest worry is his family members - his wife and a child - as they would not have a place to stay when they return from the Eastern Cape later this week.
The fire is believed to have started at pensioner Fezile Nkophe’s home when he left a paraffin stove unattended with only three little children, aged five, three and two years, at home.
The fire started just after 8pm and lasted for about an hour and, because there are no internal roads, the fire engines had been unable to drive between the shacks and stop the fire.
Nkophe said he was at a nearby spaza shop when he heard people alerting each other about the fire.
When he went closer to inspect, he found his house was on fire. He said there was nothing he could have done to save anything.
Luckily, his three children had escaped unhurt and they could not take anything with them but run for their own safety.
“The paraffin stove was on. The candle was lit. The children say the paraffin stove fell and the fire spread so quickly that they could not do anything.
"It is better that my children are safe, even though I lost everything except the clothing I am wearing now,” said Nkophe.
He said he is worried that the community might chase him out of the area, as they had done so with people who were the cause of the fires in the past.
“I am scared. People have been told to leave the area before and I might be next,” said Nkophe.
Community leader Ncedo Bangani said the fire could have been put out if there was a road for the fire engines to pass.
Bangani said the five zinc and ten poles provided to the fire victims by the City of Cape Town were not enough.
Following a devastating fire early this year that left 15 000 people displaced and three people dead, another fire broke out in March, killing one person, destroying about 100 homes and leaving about 400 people homeless.
Some of the displaced families were also victims of the December and March fires.