By Buziwe Nocuze
By Doreen Mokgolo
More than 150 people in Dunoon, Cape Town, were left homeless after a fire fanned by strong winds tore through their homes.
Community leader Zukiswa Kobe said the fire began around 7pm on Monday.
“We heard that the electricity box exploded, and the fire started. We quickly called the firefighters, and they responded early, but the challenge we faced was that they couldn’t pass the vehicles parked on the road.
“We are not blaming them. There is nothing they could have done if vehicles were blocking the road.”
Kobe said they need to solve the problem of shacks built directly next to the road because cars parked next to them block traffic flow.
“We need to find a way to make things easier for firefighters to get to an incident when called,” she said.
Lindiwe Ngcizela escaped with just the clothes she was wearing.
“I couldn’t take anything because the fire was strong. I ran outside as soon as I heard people shouting that there was a fire,” she said.
Gift of the Givers has provided hot meals, blankets, and toiletry packs to the traumatised residents.
Ali Sablay, the organisation’s Western Cape project manager, said: “Our team members arrived on Monday around 9pm. They saw the fire was out of control because of the strong wind.
Sablay said the community had concerns about children who lost their school uniforms in the inferno, and they were working to help those families.
The team was set to return on Wednesday to deliver mattresses.
Jermaine Carelse, the spokesperson for the city’s Fire and Rescue Services, said they were alerted at 8.05 p.m. on Monday to structures burning in Dunoon’s Doornbach informal settlement.
Twenty-six firefighters using seven firefighting engines managed to extinguish the blaze by 12.50am, he said.
A firefighter was injured and taken to a nearby hospital. No other injuries were reported. The cause of the fire has not yet been determined.
Pictured above: A fire in Dunoon’s Doornbach informal settlement has left more than 150 people homeless.
Image credit: Buziwe Nocuze