MORE than 150 Du Noon residents were left destitute on the eve of Christmas when a fire believed to have been started by an angry boyfriend gutted 59 homes early yesterday.
It is understood a man has been arrested for arson.
Residents claim the fire was started by a man who caught his girlfriend cheating on him in a shack in Du Noon's Site 5 informal settlement about 2am yesterday.
The angry residents said when the man, whose name cannot be released until he appears in court, tried to assault the woman and the man she was with, she fled, leaving both men behind.
"He was swearing at them and he took a paraffin lamp and threw it against the wall. Then he ran away as the fire spread," witnesses said.
They said they saw the man later being arrested by police, but Table View police did not confirm this yesterday.
Milnerton traffic patrol centre officer Dean Smith said the fire was fanned by a strong south-westerly wind and quickly spread to other shacks.
By the time fire fighters arrived, the tightly packed shacks had already been reduced to smouldering heaps. At least 150 people were left homeless after the blaze.
Thapelo, 29, who did not want to give his surname, said his house was far from the source of the blaze, but it quickly reached his home, engulfing it in flames.
He said: "We were asleep when I suddenly heard people calling out that there was fire. I ran outside, but I could not save anything. We have nothing to our name now."
He said a new pram bought for their two-year-old daughter as a Christmas present had been destroyed.
An emotional mother of two, Bongiswa Makatesi, said that besides belongings, she had lost more than R1 000 in cash - money she had kept to buy clothes for her children and parents. Makatesi said she did not know where she would sleep last night.
When Weekend Argus visited the informal settlement yesterday, residents were salvaging what they could from the wreckage and were trying to rebuild their homes.
Community leader Mandikhaya Mpumputhwana said this was a "hard knock" for the families, especially as it had happened just before Christmas. (from IOL)
It is understood a man has been arrested for arson.
Residents claim the fire was started by a man who caught his girlfriend cheating on him in a shack in Du Noon's Site 5 informal settlement about 2am yesterday.
The angry residents said when the man, whose name cannot be released until he appears in court, tried to assault the woman and the man she was with, she fled, leaving both men behind.
"He was swearing at them and he took a paraffin lamp and threw it against the wall. Then he ran away as the fire spread," witnesses said.
They said they saw the man later being arrested by police, but Table View police did not confirm this yesterday.
Milnerton traffic patrol centre officer Dean Smith said the fire was fanned by a strong south-westerly wind and quickly spread to other shacks.
By the time fire fighters arrived, the tightly packed shacks had already been reduced to smouldering heaps. At least 150 people were left homeless after the blaze.
Thapelo, 29, who did not want to give his surname, said his house was far from the source of the blaze, but it quickly reached his home, engulfing it in flames.
He said: "We were asleep when I suddenly heard people calling out that there was fire. I ran outside, but I could not save anything. We have nothing to our name now."
He said a new pram bought for their two-year-old daughter as a Christmas present had been destroyed.
An emotional mother of two, Bongiswa Makatesi, said that besides belongings, she had lost more than R1 000 in cash - money she had kept to buy clothes for her children and parents. Makatesi said she did not know where she would sleep last night.
When Weekend Argus visited the informal settlement yesterday, residents were salvaging what they could from the wreckage and were trying to rebuild their homes.
Community leader Mandikhaya Mpumputhwana said this was a "hard knock" for the families, especially as it had happened just before Christmas. (from IOL)
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