Cape Town - A 6-year-old boy and his mother were killed when a fire broke out in Samora Machel on Tuesday night.
Another person was killed in a fire in Fisantekraal near Durbanville.
The bodies of Ngcwele and his mother Nomusa Booi, 33, were found in the rubble after their shack and others went up in flames.
City fire and rescue spokesperson Jermaine Carelse said the first officer to arrive on the scene from Gugulethu was told that people were inside the burning shack.
“The City’s fire and rescue service responded at 21:54 to reports of informal structures alight in Tulip Road. Fire crews from Gugulethu, Mitchells Plain, Ottery and Lansdowne Road were dispatched to the incident.
Firefighting and rescue operations ensued simultaneously. The bodies of a woman and an infant, gender unknown, was discovered among the debris. Two structures were destroyed and two partially damaged,” said Carelse.
Samora Machel community activist Victor Lewis said they had heard that the mother had died from smoke inhalation. “We were told at about 5am the mother was with her child when the fire started.
“She could not get out of the house because the fire spread rapidly. The residents were too late to rescue her and her child,” Lewis said.
Police spokesperson FC van Wyk said an inquest docket has been registered for investigation.
In Fisantekraal a man was killed and an elderly woman was treated for smoke inhalation and taken to hospital after a fire broke out yesterday morning.
Carelse said Kraaifontein fire crew were first on the scene in Dullah Omar Street where a shack was burning.
Van Wyk said that at 4.30am when police arrived, the fire department was busy putting out the fire.
Cape Times