Masiphumelele fire leaves over 1,000 homeless

One person killed, but body burnt so badly that their sex cannot be determined.

A young man sits on corrugated iron sheeting and stares ahead. A fire tore through Masiphumelele on Monday morning. Photo: Mary-Anne Gontsana / GroundUp

Over a thousand people were left homeless and one person died after a fire swept through Masiphumelele’s Wetland informal settlement in E-Section, Cape Town, in the early hours of Monday morning.

The fire, said by residents to have been caused by a candle in one of the shacks, started at about midnight and was ultimately contained just after 5am.

When GroundUp arrived on the scene, two fire trucks stood at one of the pathways to the informal settlement. There was a heavy smell of smoke and residents were rummaging through the debris, some hammering corrugated iron sheets that they could re-use and some sitting around looking lost.

For Vivian Zenzile this was the third time she had lost her shack and belongings to a fire since she started living in E-Section in 2006.

“I have lost everything: my house, my clothes, ID documents, my children’s school uniform, school books. I am left with nothing,” she said. “I heard my neighbour screaming that there was a fire. When we went outside, the shack right next to me where the fire started was ablaze. We tried to stop it but with the wind it was just too much. That fire was too strong even for the firefighters.”

Another resident who also lost everything in the fire, Zimkhitha Simama, said she had no idea where and how she would start getting her life together again.

“We tried to put the fire out by collecting water from the nearby stream and the little that came out of the tap, but it was just not enough. Even when the firefighters arrived, they were battling.”

Jermaine Carelse, spokesperson for City Fire and Rescue, said the first response consisted of five firefighting appliances, a rescue vehicle, and 21 staff members.

“When the first officer arrived on the scene he made a quick assessment and called upon more resources, which resulted in two divisions set up, with 18 firefighting appliances, two rescue vehicles and 79 staff battling the blaze. One adult male was treated for heat exposure by the metro ambulance staff. Three firefighters were hospitalised as a result of various injuries sustained during the incident,” said Carelse.

Carelse said that, while busy with mopping-up operations, a body was found beneath corrugated iron sheeting. The person’s sex could not be determined.

Charlotte Powell, spokesperson for the City’s Disaster Risk Management Centre, said the blaze destroyed 256 structures, leaving 1,280 people affected.

“The Masiphumelele community hall and the Methodist church in Myeza Road were opened for emergency sheltering. The Disaster Risk Management Centre has informed SASSA to provide humanitarian relief. Informal Settlement Management will provide starter kits for residents once the Solid Waste Department has removed all the fire debris.”