Durban — Residents of two informal settlements in Durban were left homeless overnight after a fire razed their homes.
On Thursday, the Sim Place informal settlement in Effingham caught alight during the day. On Wednesday night, the Quarry Road informal settlement suffered a similar fate. On Thursday, the residents in both areas were still picking up the pieces and trying to make sense of the situation.
One of the residents in Sim Place, a diabetic, fell ill shortly after the blaze because she did not have medication. She was also distraught after losing her tuckshop, which was her only means of income.
Another resident, Sindiswa Dina, said she had received a call at work informing her that her house was being engulfed by flames.
“My children’s uniforms and clothes were destroyed. I don’t even care about myself. They will be coming back from school shortly. What are they going to eat and how are they going to react when they see that the place they called home is no longer there?” said Dina.
The number of shacks destroyed was still being assessed.
A fire also broke out at the KwaMamsuthu Quarry Road informal settlement in Clare Estate. The cause of the fire is still unknown.
eThekwini Municipality spokesperson Msawakhe Mayisela said that Fire Department teams were dispatched to attend to the Clare Estate fire at 11.05pm.
“Upon arrival, they found that the fire had already engulfed most of the settlement, and they were made aware of several LPG gas explosions. Our teams were divided into three: one deployed to the south, one to the north and one to work from the centre,” he said.
“Our disaster management team was also contacted to assist the approximately 400 people left destitute,” he said Acting Division Commander of the eThekwini Fire Department, Sfiso Mbatha, said they were still investigating the cause of the fires. He said there were many gas stoves in the shacks, and the informal homes were clustered together, which led to the fire spreading.
Clare Estate ward councillor Themba Mkhize said this was the third fire in just a month in his area. The others were at Kennedy and Foreman roads. Mkhize said even though the fires had not claimed any lives, they were occurring frequently and his concern was the safety of residents.
Mkhize said the big issue they faced in informal settlements was illegal connections, and he hoped that the government would intervene.
“The shack dwellers will be given building material to rebuild their shacks. I really wish that the government would save money and look at building the residents proper houses so that such incidents are prevented in future,” said Mkhize.
Daily News