About 1 000 people have been left homeless by a fire that has swept through the informal settlement of Imizamo Yethu in Hout Bay, destroying 200 shacks.
For some, it was the second time they had lost their homes in a fire.
Residents scrambled to save what they could from the path of the blaze, and furniture and clothes soon lined Nelson Mandela Road leading into the informal settlement.
Scores of men and women came from other parts of Hout Bay to help the residents remove their possessions from their homes, carrying mattresses, TVs and fridges. Some even climbed on top of shacks with buckets and bottles of water to douse the flames.
Sharon Bosch, senior communications officer at the Cape Town Fire Control Centre, said 13 vehicles from stations across the city were sent to fight the fire.
Water tankers, pumps and a rescue service vehicle were sent from Constantia, Lakeside, Fish Hoek and Simon's Town about at 2.30pm when the blaze was reported, she said.
Theo Layne, platoon commander at the Fire Control Centre, said the fire had been brought under control by late afternoon.
Layne said about 200 shacks had been destroyed, leaving 1 000 people homeless.
Two people were treated for smoke inhalation, a child received head injuries - the cause of which was unknown, Layne said - and one person suffered "superficial burns".
Several trucks remained at the scene and some firefighters were working to dampen "hot spots", Layne said.
He could not yet say what had caused the blaze.
"I don't have a place to go. My money, my pool table, it's all burnt up," Sbongakonke Hlophe said, burying his head in his hands as he lay atop the clothes, mattress, and other possessions he was able to salvage before the flames engulfed his home.
Hlophe was asleep when his brother came to warn him the fire was closing in on their home.
The fire is the second Hlophe has experienced in the five years he has lived in Imizamo Yethu.
Speaking to a relative, Sbumnyatholi Khanyile cried into his cellphone: "Oh my God … all my stuff is gone, my home, it's all gone."
Khanyile and his brother arrived too late to save anything from the home they shared.
Mother and daughter Nobuntu Mawoko and Nobantu Paliso said by the time they arrived, the blaze was "too strong" for them to save anything. The fire was the second they, too, could remember in five years at Imizamo Yethu.
The home of Paliso's brother was also burnt down. Paliso was not sure where the family would spend the night.
"I don't know where we're going. I can't even think about tomorrow."
Boniswa Cempulana saved all she could from her home and had to be carried to an ambulance for treatment after she collapsed with "shock".
- Cape Times
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