Durban -Most of the major fires out of the nearly 10000 blazes attended to by the eThekwini fire department in the first six months of this year were in informal settlements.
This was according to the department as it took stock of its activities for the year.
Department head Enock Mchunu said that 2017/18 had been a busier period compared to the same period in the past financial and calendar years. He said they had recorded 9964 fires with 60 fatalities before the end of June.
“We will only have stats next month for the calendar half-year ended December 31, 2018,” he said.
Mchunu said most major fires in 2018 were in informal settlements.
In July, a blaze that engulfed 300 shacks at the Kennedy Road Informal Settlement killed Thembinkosi Mncwango.
It took firefighters 10 hours using five tenders to put out the blaze.
In May, children aged 4 and 7 died while sleeping in a shack when it caught alight in Verulam.
Mchunu said informal settlement fires were common despite council efforts to improve the affected areas.
“Existing settlements remain vulnerable due to the nature of construction material used, spacing among structures, emergency accessibility challenges and human behaviour among other causes,” he said.