Inferno leaves hundreds homeless
THE most dire need for wheelchair-bound Esmeralda van Wyk, whose shack was razed in an inferno in the early hours of the Day of Goodwill, is a proper house.
Sitting in the debris in the aftermath of the fire, which also destroyed about 150 structures and left more than 300 people homeless in Valhalla Park’s 7th Avenue Informal Settlement, Van Wyk said: “I want a house…
“My children must live in a (proper) house. I have a disabled child, who is standing here with me.
‘‘What is going to happen to my children?
“If we don’t move from here, there will always be shack fires.
“We can’t go through this again…”
She said she woke up at 3am with one of the children in the house shouting that the settlement was on fire.
Van Wyk was carried out to safety in her wheelchair. Her legs were amputated earlier this year.
She said they were raising seven children and that their family lost all their possessions, including their clothing and furniture.
Her husband, David van Wyk, said he was at work when he was told about the fire, which started in a shack before it ignited a car that apparently exploded in a ball of fire, which rapidly spread to other shacks.
About 1 400 residents were left homeless after a fire engulfed the informal settlement nearly five years ago.
A neighbour, Waleed Klein, and his wife Ilhaam, said they also lost all their possessions, including their ID documents.
“We need school clothes and shoes for my children who are nine and 15 years old.”
An emotional Yusuf Cassiem said: “This place has burnt down three times and I lost everything every time.”
His wife said they had nowhere else to go.
City fire and rescue services spokesperson Theo Layne said they responded at 4.07am to calls about the fire.
He said about 150 structures were destroyed and more than 300 people displaced.
Eight fire trucks, five water tankers and a rescue vehicle were deployed, Layne said.