Cape Town - An eighteen-month-old baby was among six people who died in a shack fire in Paarl East on Friday morning.
Emergency response teams were called out to the Chicago informal settlement in Paarl East shortly after 8am and made the gruesome discovery after extinguishing the blaze.
Police spokesperson Captain FC van Wyk said the cause of the fire was still unknown and an inquest docket had been registered for investigation.
“After cleaning the scene, they found six burnt bodies under the rubble.
“The identities of the bodies are still unknown. It’s believed to be one adult female, a baby, two toddlers and two young men,” he said.
Community leader in the area Alima Ficks said residents were shocked by the incident that led to the deaths of the six people.
“From those who passed away, it was the mom and her three children, a 2-year-old, a 4-year-old and her adult son,” she said.
“And then the other young man who was visiting with his 18-month-old baby,” she said.
“Five other families from the blocks of flats were affected but received the necessary assistance. All the role-players were here to assist where they could, but luckily the fire didn’t spread out too much.”
Drakenstein Municipality mayor Conrad Poole expressed his condolences to the families of the fire victims.