Scores homeless as fire rips through Langa informal settlement
|Published
A fire ravaged through the township of Langa on Thursday morning.
Cape Town – A fire ripped through an informal settlement in Cape Town, leaving scores homeless on Thursday morning.
In a statement, the City of Cape Town’s Fire and Rescue spokesperson Jermaine Carelse said the fire occurred in Standford Dyosini Street in Langa, a township in Cape Town.
“Numerous informal structures were destroyed and many people left homeless after a fire ripped through Langa in the early hours of this morning (Thursday).
“The City's Fire and Rescue Service was alerted at 01:07 to informal structures alight just off Standford Dyosini Street,” Carelse said.
He said 11 firefighting “appliances” and 42 crew members were on the scene.
“Firefighters managed to contain and extinguish the fire at 04:23 and no injuries were reported,” Carelse said.
Earlier this week, two people died in a fire in Philippi in separate incidents.
The first fire was in Feljisi Road in Philippi East.
Carelse said fire crews received the emergency call at 1.50am about an informal structure alight at the address.
He said fire crews arrived and found a single structure alight.
After firefighters managed to extinguish the fire, the body of a 20-year-old man was found inside the structure.
The second incident occurred in Hlungulu Road, Browns Farm, at 2.15am.
Fire crews were alerted to this call and were told an informal structure was ablaze.
The fire claimed the life of a man, who sustained fatal burn wounds, while a woman was treated on scene and transported to the nearest medical facility for treatment of her burn wounds.
Carelse said both scenes were handed over to the South African Police Service (SAPS) for investigation.
African News Agency (ANA)