A fire recently destroyed the homes of roughly 200 families in Solly’s Town, Nomzamo in Strand. It swept through the community on Wednesday night, and could not be put out until 1am on Thursday morning.
By this time, the once lively space had been reduced to debris.
According to Melane Maqokolo who spoke to GroundUp, problems that allowed the fire to persist the way it did included a struggle to get water out fast enough due to the standpipes being ineffective. There were also only seven of them set to serve 500 families.
Then there was the wind, which served as a fierce obstacle to the 40 firefighters who were on the scene as Jermaine Carelse, City of Cape Town Fire Service confirmed.
Although there were no fatalities, people have lost their homes – what is left of their belongings standing bare.
To give you a glimpse into what it was like to be in the midst of the fire’s relentless path, a social media user Chumile Sali shared the following video on Facebook.
The Gift of the Givers is providing people with assistance, but all eyes are on the City of Cape Town’s government to aid in rebuilding.
Beyond essentials like food and clothing, people there also need temporary IDs to be issued if they lost their documents, as SASSA requires IDs before people can get help.
The fire’s origins have not been confirmed. Some sources suspect that it was a case of a neighbour who fell asleep while cooking as per IOL, while other suspicions indicate that it was caused by people connecting to one electricity box as they had not received electricity boxes. The multiple connections, as some residents believe, came from the explosion.
Cape {town} Etc has reached out to Gift of the Givers for more information on how the public can assist them in community rebuilding.
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Picture: Facebook
