About 400 people have been left homeless after a fire broke out at Mangaung informal settlement in Lower Crossroads, Cape Town.
The fire started on Sunday morning after a drunk man allegedly left a stove on after cooking meat.
Nandipha Nqotolo, a 40-year-old resident, who was fast asleep when she heard people screaming, said she would be dead if her neighbour hadn’t woken her up.
“It felt like a dream until my neighbour came and kicked down the door of my shack,” said Nandipha. “She was screaming and calling my name. I woke up and ran, I couldn’t take anything because the fire was already eating my house.
“I am grateful to my neighbour because I was in a deep sleep and I didn’t hear anything,” said Nandipha.
“I wish people who like meat when they are drunk could start cooking before they start drinking.”
Another resident said the man who left the stove on had run away.
“We have been urging people to never cook when they are drunk. We were trying to avoid situations like these and now we have lost everything,” said the angry resident.
No one was able to save any of their possessions.
“The strong wind made things difficult and the fire was too strong. We all ran for our lives. We lost our belongings but we can always replace belongings, something we couldn’t do if we had lost our lives,” said the resident.
The city’s fire and rescue services spokesperson, Jermaine Carelse, said the emergency services were alerted at approximately 2.45am that informal structures were burning in Philippi East.
“A total of 13 fire engines were on the scene with over 40 firefighters battling the blaze that was fanned by a very strong wind,” said Carelse.
“Our initial estimate is that the fire destroyed over 100 informal structures, leaving about 400 persons displaced. The cause of the fire is yet to be determined and law enforcement was deployed to ensure crowd control.”
He said the firefighters managed to contain and extinguish the fire at about 8.40am. There were no injuries or fatalities reported.
Pictured above: Fire leaves residents homeless after a drunken man allegedly left a stove on while cooking meat.
Image source: City of Cape Town
