Brenda Dingile jolted awake from a deep sleep in the early hours of yesterday morning when she heard voices crying “fire, fire”.
Having already lost her home once to fire, Dingile, 31, moved swiftly, leaping out of bed and, with the help of friends, saving some of her possessions as fierce flames, driven by howling south easterly winds, raced through the De Noon informal settlement where she lives.
The devastating fire was one of four that raged in four informal settlements across the Peninsula late on Friday night, leaving at least 800 people homeless in Khayelitsha, Masiphumelele and Milnerton, where there were two separate fires.
Miraculously, there were no injuries or deaths reported, according to disaster management spokesman Johan Minnie.
Another victim of the De Noon fire was Noneka Dyasi, 25, who lost her livelihood, a sewing machine, which she bought in December and was planning to use to make and sell clothes.
On Saturday, a shocked look on her tired face, she was sitting on a pile of corrugated iron in the mid-day heat, with the burnt-out wreck of the sewing machine next to her.
She was waiting for her children to return with building materials so she could begin the arduous task of rebuilding her home - and her shattered life.
Dyasi said the fire was particularly traumatic for her children.
“They have lost all their books and clothes and won’t be able to go to creche and school,” she said… Cape Argus
Having already lost her home once to fire, Dingile, 31, moved swiftly, leaping out of bed and, with the help of friends, saving some of her possessions as fierce flames, driven by howling south easterly winds, raced through the De Noon informal settlement where she lives.
The devastating fire was one of four that raged in four informal settlements across the Peninsula late on Friday night, leaving at least 800 people homeless in Khayelitsha, Masiphumelele and Milnerton, where there were two separate fires.
Miraculously, there were no injuries or deaths reported, according to disaster management spokesman Johan Minnie.
Another victim of the De Noon fire was Noneka Dyasi, 25, who lost her livelihood, a sewing machine, which she bought in December and was planning to use to make and sell clothes.
On Saturday, a shocked look on her tired face, she was sitting on a pile of corrugated iron in the mid-day heat, with the burnt-out wreck of the sewing machine next to her.
She was waiting for her children to return with building materials so she could begin the arduous task of rebuilding her home - and her shattered life.
Dyasi said the fire was particularly traumatic for her children.
“They have lost all their books and clothes and won’t be able to go to creche and school,” she said… Cape Argus
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