At least 38 informal homes burnt down and four people died in two separate shack fire incidents on Monday 1 December in Ward 52 in Langa. The first occurring at 04:00 at Siyahlala Informal Settlement, in which a woman and three children were burnt beyond recognition. It left at least 15 structures destroyed and more than 40 people destitute. The second incident occurred at about 15:00 in the Joe Slovo Informal Settlement where about 23 structures were destroyed and left more than 100 people homeless.
Siyahlala resident Ndikho Qakalana related how devastated by was by the tragedy; he was woken by neighbours informing him of the fire at his brother’s shack, where his girlfriend, the dead woman, lived and where the inferno that spread to other shacks began.
“My brother is in prison. He was arrested a few months ago. He left his girlfriend and children in the shack. The fire started where the deceased were sleeping. My brother had twins (15 months) with his girlfriend. The other child (6) was not his child but hers.” Qakalana said he and others were unable to rescue her and her children as the flames were already spreading through the shack and to others.
He said he still couldn’t get their screams out of his mind, and his family was due to meet to discuss the way forward. “They were all screaming inside. We could hear them as we tried to force the burglar bars apart. At some point the sound just stopped.”
Shack-fire victim from Joe Slovo Thulani Ngoma said he had lost almost everything in the blaze. He said he was in his shack when the fire started. “When the incident started I was relaxing on my bed. I managed to get some of my stuff out, but I lost my bed, my fridge and my cupboard because I had no-one to help me take them out during the fire.”
The City’s Fire and Rescue Service spokesperson Jermaine Carelse said the shack-fire incident in the Siyahlala Informal Settlement started after 04:00 on Monday 1 December. He said the service received a call about structures alight with people trapped inside. “Several crews went out to the scene and firefighters managed to extinguish the blaze by 06:30. Initial estimates were15 structures destroyed, leaving several displaced. Sadly, an adult female (mother) and three minors (genders unknown) were found with fatal burns underneath the debris.”
Carelse said another shack-fire incident erupted in Mcingana Street, Zone 31 in Langa at around 15:25 on the same day.
“We had more than 30 firefighters battling the blaze, including the Incident Management Team (IMT) Type 4. Two firefighters sustained injuries and were taken to a nearby medical facility. The fire was extinguished just after 18:00.Our preliminary estimate is that 23 structures were destroyed and around 100 people were displaced.” He said no other injuries, apart from the two firefighters, were reported and the cause was unknown.
