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A general view of the aftermath after a fire destroyed thousands of huts in Masiphumelele on December 18, 2020 in Cape Town, South Africa. According to media reports, no one was injured or killed in the disaster and the cause of the fire is still under investigation. (Photo: Gallo Images / Brenton Geach)
Some 1,030 shacks caught fire and 4,000 people were affected after a ‘devastating’ fire broke out in an informal settlement in Masiphumelele, just off Kommetjie Road in southern Cape Town on Thursday.
“We were running. We were running for our lives, ”says Nyathi, whose house burned down in a fire that devastated an informal settlement in Masiphumelele, in southern Cape Town, on December 17.
Nyathi, who asked to be mentioned only by her last name, is one of more than 4,000 people now displaced after the blaze, driven by high winds, destroyed more than 1,030 homes, the city of Cape Town said. . Daily maverick. “This fire is devastating. It is something that is almost unimaginable, ”said John Thomas of the NGO Living Hope, who offers health, social and community development programs in the area.
Video of Masiphumelele Fire Taken by Wandile Mdayi on December 17, 2020.
The fire broke out around 3 p.m. Thursday afternoon, according to Nokuthula Ngwandi, a resident whose home was among those destroyed by the fire.
The Cape Town Fire and Rescue Service was alerted to the “column of thick black smoke” around 4 pm, it reported. Daily maverick overnight. The Masiphumelele fire was extinguished at 1 a.m. Friday, according to Jermaine Carelse, a spokesman for the city’s fire and rescue service. Crews are monitoring the area for outbreaks. No injuries were reported, Carelse said.
According to Thomas, the fire spread in Section B, which is quite close to the wetlands. The cause of the fire is still unknown, Thomas said.
Residents gathered where their homes stood on Friday, trying to save what was left. They are trying to rebuild to have a place to stay a week before Christmas.
“People are now trying to rebuild their homes before Christmas,” Nyathi said. According to Nyathi, she and her brother were staying at their mother’s home in another part of Masiphumelele, until their home was rebuilt.
Naythi spoke on behalf of her brother, who asked to remain anonymous as he collected wooden planks and materials around the rubble, and used a tape measure to trace the area where his home once stood.
According to Nyathi, the fire brigade arrived but “they couldn’t… the fire was out of control”.
Nyathi’s husband was not home when the fire started, but she and her children were. “This is my husband’s house, he wasn’t here… he was at work,” she says.
Sorting the remains
“We lost everything. Now we have nothing, ”said Mildred Murandu, standing just a few steps from a pile of rubble that used to be her home. “So we are trying to rebuild again. There is no other way, ”Murandu said, as his neighbor, the Sithole prince, stood by his side.
Sithole says that no one had time to try to save their belongings. Everything was destroyed.
Video of Masiphumelele fire bombarded with water Taken by Wandile Mdayi on December 17, 2020.
“We just run away; we saved our lives, ”he said.
Most of the community had spent Thursday night in a community room and would return to the room on Friday night.
“We are thinking, what are we going to eat? Where are we going to sleep? There is no privacy in the hall. We don’t have clothes, we don’t have anything, ”said Nokuthula Ngwandi, who was at her cousin’s house when the fire broke out.
When Ngwandi returned home, the structure had already burned down.
Ngwandi wasn’t the only one who came home to find everything she had destroyed. Another Masiphumelele resident, Noluvo Thomas, came home from work to find his home on fire.
“I can’t tell you what really happened because I was at work… when I got home I found out that my house was burned down,” Thomas said.
“We lost everything because we had no chance to keep looking for what needs to be saved,” he said. “What can I do now? [I] I don’t have a place to sleep, I have nothing. “
According to Ngwandi, people are picking up what they can find from the rubble, but even if residents find their belongings, they could be stolen without a safe place to store them. People are helpless and desperate, he said.
“So what’s the use of taking the leftover belongings?” she asked.
Living Hope is asking people to help in the situation, according to Thomas. Help is needed in volunteers, clothing, bedding, food, he reported.
“Donations can be dropped off anytime, at Living Hope on Kommetjie Road, across from Masiphumelele,” he said.
In the past five years, there have been at least five fires in the Masiphumelele area. In 2019, a fire in the area burned 100 houses and one person died in Section E in the informal settlement. the 2019 the fire was caused by a candle in one of the huts, according to residents. A fire in 2015 killed two residents and left 4,000 displaced. DM
For money donations to the Living Hope Disaster Relief account:
Bank: FNB
Branch: 202309
Account Number: Disaster Appeal Account
Account number: 62672419267
