Houses burn as the President laughs about his firepool

Cape Town - Violence flared again in Marikana informal settlement on Friday, after residents torched the home of Leticia Mali on Symphony Way.

The act prompted retaliation by residents of Lower Crossroads who, in turn, set ablaze a shack of the man they accused of being behind the attack on Mali’s house.

The conflict has raged throughout the week, starting as a protest prompted by the cutting of illegal electricity connections to the informal settlement.

Four municipal trucks and five other vehicles were set alight, and a 68-year-old man died after his Toyota Hilux was stoned on the N2 on Thursday. Police vehicles were also stoned.

Angry Marikana protesters torched Mali’s home in the early hours of yesterday morning.

The Lower Crossroads residents then retaliated, claiming they were being held to ransom by the informal settlement residents.

“We are angry because we don’t have services to give them, and we are not responsible for them.

“So we don’t understand why they are taking their anger out on us and our homes.

“They have started this fight and we will not succumb to their ludicrous behaviour. These are our homes and we have worked hard for them,” one angry Lower Crossroads resident said.

Mali’s home was petrol-bombed by angry Marikana residents who claimed it was unfair that they were stuck in shacks with no services, while their neighbours lived comfortably.

Mali said some illegal electricity connections had run to Marikana from her house, but that she had cut them off due to the blackouts.

“They got angry and they threw a petrol bomb through the roof of the bedroom.

“The fire spread fast because there was no ceiling in that room,” she said.

Marikana community leader Nocks Gijana countered that it was not residents of the informal settlement who set her house alight, although she acknowledged there was bad blood between the two neighbourhoods.

Police spokesman Captain Frederick van Wyk said late on Friday that the area remained tense, and police were monitoring the situation.

“This office can confirm that police action was taken during an ongoing protest in the Philippi East area.

“Property was damaged, but an accurate account of damages cannot no be issued at this stage,” he said.

- Saturday Argus

Four children die in shack fire

Cape Town - A Khayelitsha family has been left reeling in the aftermath of a shack fire which killed four children trapped inside.

The children, two of them just a year old, had been found dead at the doorway where they had desperately tried to open the door.

Lungiswa Vensile, the mother of two of the children, screamed as she recounted arriving at the shack in Khayelitsha's U Section to find it had been engulfed in flames.

Her children had been staying with her sister for the past two weeks as she worked to support her extended family.

"I am just so sad," she said, her voice hoarse and tears spilling down her cheeks.

The other two children were three and six.

Police said the fire had started at around 8pm, They were investigating the cause.

Neighbours said they had stepped outside to see a tower of flames looming over their homes as the fire engulfed a double-storey shack on the property.

Police said four dwellings were destroyed.

kieran.legg@inl.co.za

- Cape Argus

Shack fire leaves more than 200 homeless

Cape Town - Approximately 240 people have been left homeless after a fire swept through parts of an informal settlement in Masiphumelele near Fish Hoek late on Thursday afternoon, the City of Cape Town said.

“Approximately 60 structures were destroyed,” the City’s disaster risk management spokeswoman Charlotte Powell said.

The City is providing emergency shelter for the survivors at the Masiphumelele Community Hall.

“The Red Cross Society will provide relief in the form of hot meals, blankets, and food,” said Powell.

The City’s human settlements department was on scene registering those affected and would provide affected residents with starter kits to rebuild their homes.

- ANA

Humble locations with exotic names

Cape Town - Ever wondered how exotic locations such as Barcelona, France and Taiwan became the names of local informal settlements?

Residents offered some explanation about the names last week, pointing out that conditions in them did not quite match the famous names.

Barcelona informal settlement in Gugulethu was named after the Spanish city because some residents wanted to draw international attention to the plight of the people in the area situated adjacent to the N2, said resident Mongami Mbili.

“It was around 1993 when I arrived here and there were several shacks, not many of them. This place was occupied by people who were mostly backyard dwellers from various areas, and some who were living with their parents and looking for their own place,” said Mbili.

A stone’s throw from Barcelona is the Europe informal settlement in Nyanga. Resident Thanduxolo Temba said the name simply surfaced - then it stuck.

“Europe has existed since 1992. It was formed by people who were mainly from the township area called Lusaka. This place was a dumping site, and people cleaned it up and erected their structures. Committees were then formed. It has grown fast over the years,” said Temba.

In Khayelitsha, France informal settlement was named after residents from Site B were given the go-ahead to occupy the open ground near OR Tambo Hall in 1997.

“People were told they could build on the land the same weekend Bafana Bafana qualified for the World Cup in France for the first time. There was a national campaign Siyaya eFrance (We are going to France).

“Residents were overjoyed and decided to name this place as a reminder of that moment,” said Sithembele Nongauza.

He said residents were promised development, but 18 years down the line the place is still the same.

The city also has its own Marikana, which is situated in Philippi. Marikana was informally named after the Rustenburg township where striking miners were killed during a clash with police almost three years ago.

“There were few shacks in that land before people from various places came and occupied it. Most of the people who stay here were backyarders,” said community leader Xolani Joja. He said it was named Marikana because residents were evicted many times and their building material taken away.

“We clashed with the police. They used rubber bullets, tear gas and stun grenades, but we never backed down. We kept fighting until the end. Now this place belongs to the people. This place is home to many people,” Joja said.

About a kilometre from France, backyarders from TR Section and Site C in Khayelitsha illegally occupied land and named it Azania.

Their occupation did not last long as the land owner, arms manufacturer Denel, obtained an eviction court order.

Xolani Jack, a former TR resident, said:

“I named the place Azania and other residents liked the name. We named it after Azania because this is our country. We are the people of Azania.”

Adjacent to Mitchells Plain is the Siqalo informal settlement, which is home to more than 1 200 families.

The settlement, on private land, has existed for less than five years.

“Siqalo means beginning. This place was a forest and people used to dump here.

“There were a few people from Tafelsig in Mitchells Plain living here too. People who were backyard dwellers could no longer afford rent and identified this land.

“It was named by residents. This land is not suitable for us to live on, but we have nowhere else to go,” said resident Sinazo Tempele.

siyavuya.mzantsi@inl.co.za

- Cape Times

Five dead, scores displaced by fires

Cape Town - Five people were killed in three separate fires in the Cape Peninsula on Sunday morning, the City of Cape Town Fire Service said.

“Just before 3am this [Sunday] morning the City’s Fire and Rescue Service responded to an informal settlement fire, Salamander Road Command, Hout Bay,” said spokesman Theo Layne.

A man, a woman, and two minors were killed in the blaze which swept through the informal settlement, destroying 30 shacks.

Approximately 120 people were left displaced.

Police were on scene to investigate the cause of the fire.

An hour later, a man was killed when one shack was razed to the ground in Solomon street, Mfuleni.

Earlier on Sunday morning, 25 people were left displaced when seven shacks were destroyed during a fire at the Village Heights informal settlement in Lavender Hill.

- ANA

Fire outside Cape Town kills one

Cape Town – A fire in the Wallacedene informal settlement in Kraaifontein in the early hours of Saturday morning claimed the life of one man and left several dozen people displaced, the City of Cape Town’s disaster risk management team said.

The victim was identified as Buyisa Nofemela.

According to the city’s disaster risk management spokesperson, Charlotte Powell, 23 adults and 14 children were displaced.

An NGO would provide the affected families with food parcels, blankets and mattresses.

The families would also be provided with “starter kits” to rebuild their homes. 

- African News Agency

The city's tale of two fires

Bo-Kaap residents accused of torching shacks

Cape Town - About 60 shack dwellers living in the Bo-Kaap have been left destitute after their 12 shacks were torched last week, and they suspect unhappy local residents of being behind the fire.

Tensions are rising in the area, with angry residents accusing the shack dwellers of introducing a scourge of crime and drugs to the area.

The group of homeless people are now squatting under a tree on a street corner.

Bo-Kaap Civic chairman Osman Shaboodien said he had heard rumours of an arson attack, among other possible causes, for the fire that swept through the Farm, but there was no certainty.

“There’s nothing confirmed, and there’s no traces of a petrol bomb,” Shaboodien said.

“I don’t think members of the community would stoop to such a level. It’s inhumane.”

The area of land is known as the Farm, and was previously a military base along Military Road, which leads up to the Noon Day Gun. The land belongs to the Department of Public Works.

Hazel Maphomey had lived on the Farm for seven years before her shack was gutted.

“The police confirmed a petrol bomb was involved. We know people don’t want us here.”

She appealed to the Bo-Kaap residents: “Please understand what we’re going through, and just have a heart. All I want is for the community around us to bear with us. We have nowhere else to go.”

But Bo-Kaap residents meeting police, Neighbourhood Watch and ward councillor Dave Bryant on Monday night said the “squatters” had caused a scourge of crime, violence and drugs in the area, and they felt threatened in their homes and feared for the safety of their children.

“Everybody in this community is scared,” said one woman.

“I live on that corner and they are constantly targeting me.”

A man added: “They jump over the walls and washing disappears off lines.”

Another said: “They are selling drugs and poisoning our children.”

But Rose Hendricks, who has lived on the Farm for six years, said many of the people living there were not criminals.

“They tried to kill innocent people,” she said.

“Not all of us are doing drugs here.”

Hendricks burst into tears when she thought about her kitten that died in the fire.

“She was only two months old. I don’t have children, I only had that cat. I loved that cat.”

Edward Abrahams has lived in the Bo-Kaap for 50 years, and said the squatters had made life hell for residents.

“These people are not supposed to be here,” he said.

“A lot of criminals have come over from The Kraal, and drug users come up from the Parade. Our life is one big hell here.”

Abrahams said a tourist was mugged there just days earlier, in the area surrounding Signal Hill and the Noon Day Gun.

“How’s it going to affect tourism when people can’t even go up there in safety?”

The Bo-Kaap residents decided to reconvene in two weeks, when they hope Public Works will be present at the meeting.

chelsea.geach@inl.co.za

- Cape Argus

Sustainable cannabis can solve many of the problems below

Fireproof Cannabrick

Boy killed, 300 homeless after fires

Cape Town - A seven-year-old boy was killed and close to 300 people were left displaced in separate shack fires over the weekend.

Brian Olifant, 7, was killed when a fire broke out, destroying four shacks in Wallacedene.

City of Cape Town Disaster Risk Management spokesman Wilfred Solomons-Johannes said the fiire broke out on Sunday at around 10am.

Solomons-Johannes said a community worker had said Brian was the second child in the family to be killed in a fire.

Community workers said they suspected the fire was ignited by a child playing with matches. However, city fire and rescue spokesman Theo Layne said investigators at the scene found that the fire was caused by an electrical short circuit.

Solomons-Johannes said 10 other people were displaced as a result of the fire.

In another incident, 67 shacks were destroyed in a blaze and 270 people were left homeless at the Ekuphumleni informal settlement in Dunoon near Milnerton. The fire broke out on Sunday around 11am.

Layne said it was suspected that it was caused by a cigarette left unattended.

“The cigarette ignited (clothing) which spread to the rest of the shack.”

Solomons-Johannes said no injuries were reported and a community centre in the area was used as an emergency shelter. He said humanitarian relief was arranged and building materials had been delivered.

Layne warned people to be careful when using cooking with fire at this time of the year, especially in informal settlements.

“We find that fires are mostly started by these braais, and what is worse is that people sometimes cannot extinguish the fires properly.”

He said that although there had not been many shack fires during the festive season, his department had received more than 100 reports of vegetation fires.

“Fires happen all the time in open fields; sometimes we find that it was a cigarette butt thrown out the window of a car, or someone walking through the fields.

“Also we found that a lot of malicious vegetation fires are started by children playing with matches.”

In the past few weeks, firefighting crews have been stretched due to the large vegetation fires caused by dry, sunny weather and New Year’s Eve celebrations.

On New Year’s Eve two large vegetation fires broke out and several small fires ignited in the Cape Flats.

Layne reported that the first day of the new year was chaotic.

In Noordhoek, two helicopters were called in to water bomb a vegetation fire. Layne said conventional vehicles were unable to reach the fire.

On the same day another large fire broke out in Ocean View and teams of firefighters, along with two helicopters, were called to the scene.

Both fires were suspected to have been caused by firecrackers.

- Cape Argus

President has a fire pool - Fuck the rest!

Party leaders, including Zuma and Ramaphosa, will start mobilising support for their rally tomorrow. The ANC uses the annual January 8 founding celebrations to outline its programme for the year in a speech delivered by the party’s incumbent president.

Zuma is expected to do walk-abouts and attend public meetings in various townships around Cape Town, including Langa, Nyanga and Mitchells Plain.

In Cape Town Zuma will be joined by 80 national executive committee members and ministers Nomvula Mokonyane and Derek Hanekom. Ramaphosa is also expected to hit the townships, but his schedule also includes door-to-door visits and mobilising campaign at taxi ranks and train stations.

“There were a lot of by-laws that we had to comply with, and we did. At first it was clear there were signs of frustration with us hosting the celebrations here. We are past those things now and we are ready for the business that has brought us here,” said Kodwa.

He said all political parties were looking to strengthen their bases, but that the weekend event had nothing do with campaigning.

- Sunday Independent

Seven year old boy killed in Western Cape shack fire

A seven year old boy was killed on Sunday when a fire tore through four shacks in Wallacedene, the Cape Town disaster management said.

Ten other people were left homeless as a result, spokesman Wilfred Solomons-Johannes said in a statement.

In a separate incident, 270 people were displaced when a fire destroyed 67 shacks in Ekuphumleni informal settlement at Du Noon near Milnerton, he said.

No injuries were reported. Provision of humanitarian relief aid was being arranged.

Building materials would be provided to the affected households on Monday by the human settlements department, Solomons-Johannes said.

A community centre in the area would be used as an emergency shelter for those affected.

- Timeslive

SHACK FIRES: 150 CAPETONIANS SPEND CHRISTMAS WITHOUT SHELTER

Blazes gutted informal dwellings in the Cape last night & in the early hours of this morning.

CAPE TOWN - About 150 Capetonians are spending Christmas day without shelter after their informal dwellings were gutted by fires last night and in the early hours of Christmas morning.

A total of 39 shacks and a house has been gutted in areas including Philippi, Khayelitsha and Gugulethu.

City of Cape Town disaster risk management's Wilfred Solomon’s-Johannes says, Disaster response teams have been deployed at first light this morning to provide the necessary aid to the victims that lost everything in the fires.”

He says an investigation into the cause of the fires is underway.

The city's Fire and Rescue Services says it has a full complement of fire fighters to deal with blazes across the peninsula.

Strong winds and faulty electrical equipment are some of the main causes of fires.

The city's Theo Lane says human error is to blame in many cases.

“We have seasonal firefighters about 120 of them. We have the recruits that have just finished training then we have the reserve firefighters, 19 of them, and they will be deployed to various fire stations.”

At the same time in the Eastern Cape, four boys have died after the hut they were sleeping in burnt down in Willow Vale.

They boys, aged between 14 and 17 apparently made a fire before falling asleep.

No foul play is suspected.

The Police's Jackson Manatha says, “At this point in time, the police are not suspecting any foul play and have opened an inquest docket for further investigation.”

- EWN

CTN fires leave hundreds homeless

A total of 118 people have been left homeless after 30 shacks burned down in various parts of Cape Town, the City's Disaster Operations Centre said on Saturday.

“No injuries were reported,” said the Centre's acting head Wilfred Solomons-Johannes.

In the most devastating of the five fires that had broken out since Friday night, 80 people were displaced and 20 shacks were destroyed when a fire broke out at the Imizamo Yethu informal settlement in Hout Bay.

In Ravensmead, two adults and a child were left homeless after their backyard dwelling was destroyed in a fire, while in Khayelitsha, another shack burnt down, leaving two people displaced.

In the early hours of Saturday morning, two fires broke out: one in Fizantekraal and the other in Kraaifontein.

Eighteen people were left displaced in the Fizantekraal fire that destroyed six shacks.

In Kraaifontein, 15 people lost their homes after two shacks were burned down.

Solomons-Johannes said those affected were receiving food, clothing, toiletries blankets and building materials.

“The cause of these fires is undetermined at this stage,” he said, adding an investigation would, however, take place. - Sapa

Two girls die in shack blaze

Cape Town - Two little girls burnt to death after they were trapped inside their burning shack early on Tuesday morning.

Lithabo, 2, and Kwakhanya, 5, were fast asleep in their Philippi East home when the fire broke out.

Their mother, Vuyokazi Gcilitshane, managed to escape. She ran for help, screaming: “The children are inside.”

Gcilitshane was taken to hospital with burns, according to City of Cape Town fire chief Theo Layne.

Her neighbour, Douglas Gungqisa, was home on Tuesday morning to recount the horrifying night.

Gungqisa owns the formal house and property on which the backyard shack was built. The Gcilitshane family had lived there since last year.

“I was woken at 1am by a woman who came running to tell me the shack is on fire,” he said. “I jumped up and ran. I was so confused. Then we went to fetch water in buckets to throw on the fire.”

Gungqisa said the blaze only grew as they poured water over it, as if the water was paraffin.

“I heard the screams of the mother saying the children are in there,” he said. “The mother couldn’t say what caused the fire, she was just crying. All she could say was ‘the children are inside’.”

Soon community members came to help, and a security van called the fire brigade.

When the neighbours managed to put out the flames, they set about searching for the girls.

“We didn’t hear the screams of the children,” Gungqisa said. “It was just quiet.”

He found their charred bodies under a sheet of collapsed corrugated sheeting.

On Tuesday morning, the blackened site was home only to twisted metal, burnt plates and the soggy remains of a tiny girls’ T-shirts and pink shoes.

Gungqisa’s house in Apile Crescent was slightly damaged by smoke, but not burnt.

Layne said that a man had died in a separate fire last night. “There was also a fire in Kosovo informal settlement. One adult male sustained fatal burns.”

The cause of both fires was not known and details were unclear as formal reports had not yet been filed on Tuesday morning.

- Cape Argus

Dunoon hit by sixth blaze this year

Cape Town - For the sixth time this year 160 residents of Dunoon, near Milnerton, watched in despair as a fire devastated the informal settlement - reducing all their possessions to ash and prompting the community to initiate a contingency plan.

The residents were among about 400 people who were displaced following fires in seven informal settlements across the peninsula at the weekend.

In the early hours of Sunday morning, mother-of-three Tokoza Xamlashe was woken by a cry for help as a fast-moving fire headed in her direction. “I woke my children, grabbed the baby and ran. There was no way that I was able to stop that fire. It was big and spreading very fast,” said Xamlashe.

“We rebuild, then lose our belongings. So the cycle continues. It is heartbreaking and terrible, especially because I know I am not responsible.”

City of Cape Town Disaster Risk Management spokesman Wilfred Solomons-Johannes said the cause was unknown.

At a meeting on Sunday, community leaders implored residents to be more careful about leaving fires unattended.

According to community leader Thembinkosi Janda, residents were considering establishing a night patrol to check whether residents had properly extinguished fires before they went to sleep.

“We will have meetings. The selected group will be responsible for ensuring that people kill their fires properly and report to me anyone who has fallen asleep with their candles still lit. This needs to end,” said Janda.

Residents of the informal settlement did not have access to electricity.

Janda said they had been occupying the land illegally for the past six years because there was no other place to stay.

Solomons-Johannes said the fire was one of eight at the weekend. On Saturday night, 63 people were displaced when fires swept through Masiphumelele, Philippi, Strand and Khayelitsha.

On Friday night, 118 people from Kanana informal settlement in Gugulethu and 41 people from Joe Slovo also lost their homes in shack fires.

Solomons-Johannes said on Sunday the causes of the fires were not yet known.

In another incident in Elsies River on Friday night, a 58-year-old woman died during a fire, leaving a male occupant displaced.

The cause of that fire was also being investigated.

francesca.villette@inl.co.za

- Cape Times

Over 150 people displaced in Cape Town fire

Over 100 people were displaced on Sunday, when a fire ravaged shacks in Du Noon, the city of Cape Town.

"It happened in the early hours of this morning. Thirty-eight shacks were burnt, 152 [people] were displaced," said spokesman Wilfred Solomons-Johannes.

No injuries or fatalities were reported.

Many of the shacks had been rebuilt by Sunday afternoon, he said.

- SAPA

Aftermath of a Shack Fire

With summer heat and seasonal gale force southeaster winds, it is a time of high risk for shack fires. There were 123 fires in the past month in informal settlements in the Western Cape. This December, load shedding may well be adding to that risk. GroundUp visited a family in the aftermath of a recent shack fire to see how they are coping.

In a fire on the weekend of 29 November in Barcelona, Gugulethu, Sindiswa Swapi lost everything.

At about 4:30pm, Swapi said she was woken by three of her neighbors, shouting to her to open her door.

"I took my children out of the shack to safety and ran to see what was happening. I saw people throwing water at my neighbor's house and trying to kick a door open. By the time the door was opened, half of the house was burnt, affecting other houses," said Swapi.

A lady known as Nomampondo said that some people in the community believe the cause of the fire was a stove that was left switched on.

"We think that the owner of the shack where the fire started left his stove switched on or did not realize that the stove was on because there was load shedding in the area ... [Shortly] after the electricity came back on, the fire started."

"We do not blame Eskom, but I think that Eskom should give us notices about times of load shedding, because sometimes when the electricity just goes off, we get upset and forget about safety precautions," said Nomampondo.

Eskom does give notice of planned power cuts, but as GroundUp previously reported, some communities struggle to get the information.

Nomampondo says that the owner of the shack ran away after what happened and they haven't seen him since.

According to Wilfred Solomons-Johannes, acting head of the Disaster Operations Centre in the Western Cape, faulty electrical equipment was the suspected cause of the Barcelona fire.

Solomons-Johannes said the City's disaster response team assisted the fire victims with food parcels, clothing, blankets, toiletries and building materials.

Seven shacks were destroyed by the fire and 28 people left homeless.

Swapi, her three children and husband are now staying in a neighbour's one-bedroomed shack.

"My neighbour offered my family a place to stay even though she and her family of four are already staying in the shack. My family and I are sleeping on the floor. We eat food parcels that were given to us by disaster management."

"I am hurt because I not only lost everything, but my two two-week old puppies were burnt to death and we couldn't help them," says Swapi.

Her surviving dogs and puppies are now homeless.

Swapi said that she doesn't have anything to wear; her children's school books were burnt, including their school uniforms, clothes and birth certificates. She feels helpless; she had just bought her children summer clothes for the December holiday before the fire destroyed everything.

All that remains of the neighbour's house where the fire started. Photo by Pharie Sefali.

"My husband is the only one working at home ... He doesn't know how we are going to survive for the month because we have to buy beds and other furniture and still have to think of the children's school uniforms for next year amongst other things," says Swapi.

Sibulele Swapi, who is 13 and in grade six, says he is glad that none of his family members were burnt, but he is sad he is not going to enjoy his holiday like other children; there won't be any money to buy Christmas goodies.

Other families are also staying at their neighbours until they rebuild.

Charlotte Powell, portfolio Head of Public Awareness and Preparedness at the Disaster Risk Management Centre, says the fire season is normally the summer months ranging from early October to late March every year.

"This is a high risk time when the southeaster blows at gale force strength and temperatures are high. Once uncontrolled fire is started, the combination of strong winds and dry vegetation makes it extremely difficult to control, especially in mountainous areas where access is difficult", says Powell.

According to fire and rescue services in the Western Cape, between 1 November and 2 December, 2216 fire responses were recorded of which 397 were structures on fire; 123 of those were in informal settlements with nine fatalities and 406 informal dwelling units burned down.

According to Ian Schnetler Chief Fire Officer, the shack fires (123) and fatality (nine) figures for this year and last year were exactly the same, but 81 less homes were destroyed.

- allAfrica

Seven dead in Cape fires this month

Cape Town - Seven people died and 900 others were affected in over 1000 fires in Cape Town since the beginning of November, the city said on Thursday.

“More than half of the incidents involved informal structures, resulting in the destruction of nearly 300 homes,” mayoral committee member Alderman JP Smith said in a statement.

Of the more than 1000 fires in the city in the first two and a half weeks of November, 956 were vegetation fires and 121 were structural fires.

“That is more than double the number of vegetation fires reported during the same period last November,” said Smith.

On Wednesday, three fire engines, two helicopters and 25 ground crew worked towards extinguishing a fire on a mountain above Glencairn Heights in Cape Town.

Fire and rescue services spokeswoman Sharon Bosch said the fire had destroyed extensive vegetation but no properties were in danger.

The increase of fires had been attributed to the “fire season”, which “sees an increase in the number of fires reported between November and March as a result of the higher temperatures and sometimes gale-force winds”.

The current weather conditions in Cape Town had also contributed to the increase in fires.

“Last year, we were still experiencing floods in November. This year, the weather has been drier but it has also been extremely windy and, of course, these conditions are conducive to the spread of fires,” said Smith.

With vegetation fires, Smith said it was suspected that wood-cutters or bush dwellers may be to blame, while combustible items such as cigarettes, candles and stoves left unattended could have attributed towards the structural fires.

“That is why it is so crucial that residents manage open flames properly and discard cigarette butts in a responsible manner. A small spark is all it takes to set off a blaze,” said Smith.

“We have also seen a number of incidents where structures are deliberately set alight due to personal squabbles, often with devastating consequences.”

Smith urged people to work with the city to prevent fires.

“The city has done a great deal to minimise the risk of fires, because ultimately it is better to avoid fires.”

- Sapa