Pretoria - Residents of Cemetery View informal settlement, east of Pretoria, are picking up the pieces after a fire engulfed around 400 shacks at the weekend.
They were hard at work trying to rebuild their homes while trying to salvage their belongings from the ashes of the fire that erupted just before midnight on Sunday.
There was no time to talk or even stress much about things such as food for the residents, among them South Africans and Lesotho, Zimbabwe as well as Mozambique nationals. It is understood that the inferno injured four of their people.
Tshwane Emergency Services Department spokesperson Charles Mabaso said firefighters confronted flames 20m high and heard multiple explosions of what was thought to be gas cylinders.
He said the four people, whose gender and age were not yet determined, were transported by private ambulance services to hospital. One was apparently in a critical condition and the other three stable.
“Firefighters managed to contain the blaze at approximately 1.38am and fully extinguished it at 3.30am.
“The total number of shacks on fire was estimated to be 400 during firefighting operations at the incident, an assessment is, however, under way to determine the exact number of shacks and households affected.
"Disaster Management and Social Development officials are on the ground conducting the assessment and a local church is sheltering some of the affected.
"Fire Safety officials have been dispatched to determine the cause of the fire which is unknown at the moment,“ said Mabaso.
Thapelo Ngwenyama from Lesotho said he did not even have food and had lost his blankets and stove.
"I am only left with the clothes I am wearing and those little things I had in my shack were everything that I owned.
“I am just really defeated. I do not know what to do at this point. A person can never really make progress in this life," he said.
Kgathuddi Mabuwa and Kenneth Moyo said there was a rumour that the fire erupted after an altercation between two men who were fighting over a woman.
"We can never be too sure but at this point we are worried about the children and the fact that there are rains coming, but we do not even have enough building material and beds. We will be sleeping on the rocky ground for a couple of days. This is bad," said Moyo.
Eno Mbirwa said he had recently just moved in with a cousin, and this was the last thing he expected when he arrived from Zimbabwe. He said although he did not have much belongings, having nothing altogether was rather new for him.
Pretoria News