Two people were killed and over 200 others displaced in shack fires around Cape Town over the past two days, the city's disaster risk management centre said on Monday.
The first fire broke out in KD Section, Philippi, just after midnight on Sunday, spokesman Wilfred Solomons-Johannes said.
Twenty-five shacks were gutted, displacing 72 people. About an hour later, another shack was destroyed by fire in Asanda Village in Strand. One person was killed.
At 9am, two wendy houses at the back of a home in Rocklands, Mitchells Plain, caught alight. Nine people were displaced.
A fire in Lusaka informal settlement, Crossroads, at 10am gutted a shack and left three people without a home.
Solomons-Johannes said a fire in the early hours of Monday at Joe Slovo informal settlement in Langa gutted 33 shacks.
“The fire started in a locked dwelling that rapidly swept through the area,” he said.
A total of 122 people were displaced. A fire around the same time destroyed eight shacks and displaced 32 people. It also claimed the life of a man.
Solomons-Johannes made a renewed appeal for people to practice fire safety.
“When going to sleep, residents should switch off electrical devices and extinguish gas burners, candles, lamps and paraffin stoves in order to prevent accidental fires.”
- Sapa/IOL
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