Fed-up flat fire victims slam Sol
Danie van der Lith THE SOL Plaatje Municipality has assured residents of Krisant Court, which was extensively damaged in a fire more than a week ago, that work on repairing the complex and cleaning operations will commence as soon as possible.
Residents accused the municipality yesterday of doing little to clean and repair the complex.
The municipality, however, blamed an outstanding assessment of the damage by insurers for the delay.
Last week, after the fire broke out in a flat in Frederick Place, Beaconsfield, one patient was transported to hospital while the Sol Plaatje Municipality confirmed that it was investigating the matter.
It is believed that last Monday’s inferno, which occurred amidst a shutdown of the city’s water supply, was started accidentally by a resident who had been cooking and quickly spread out of control, causing extensive damage to multiple flats in the Krisant Court complex.
This left many residents furious, questioning why there were no fire extinguishers available in the residential block.
Others needed to search for temporary accommodation and while some was made available in Free State Road, this accommodation was in a deplorable condition, with broken windows and rooms that had been stripped and vandalised.
Neil Mereton was among those who was offered alternate shelter in the dilapidated block after last week’s fire gutted his home.
However, he said yesterday that more than a week after the incident, little to no progress had been made to provide suitable housing for the displaced residents.
“At this stage, we are still sleeping on couches at Krisant Court,” he said yesterday. “We were at the other block on Monday but nothing has been done to improve conditions there.
“We cannot even make the place neat and tidy as we don’t have supplies to do so. We also don’t have electricity, making proper clean-up almost impossible.
“To make matters worse, everything still smells of smoke. It’s not just the flat and furniture but all our clothes too. I can’t go to work smelling like this, but we have nowhere else to go and nobody is helping.”
Douglas Mthukwane, who was asleep on the afternoon of the fire and was the only tenant transported to hospital, agreed with his neighbour, adding that his requests for municipal assistance had, to date, fallen on deaf ears.
Assist
“I’m still sleeping in the flat where nothing has been done to assist us,” said Mthukwane. “I have personally contacted the municipal manager and Sello Matsie (the municipal spokesperson). I also spoke to the councillor but nobody is doing what they are supposed to.”
Meanwhile, according to Matsie the biggest factor contributing to the delay in the clean-up process, is not an unwillingness to assist on the part of local government but rather an outstanding assessment of the damage which still needs to be conducted by the company responsible for the insurance of the building.
“Until the insurance assessors have come in to evaluate the extent and cost of the damage, there is very little we can do to assist with the clean-up process,” Matsie said yesterday afternoon.
“We don’t want to speculate on when the assessment will be conducted but it should be soon.
“Once this process is concluded and they have collected all the information that is relevant to their evaluation, efforts to repair and clean the damaged property can commence.”