Gift of the Givers intervenes to help stricken Philippi community
HUNDREDS of people have been left displaced after a fire ripped through several informal structures in Philippi during the early hours of yesterday.
The City’s Fire and Rescue Service spokesperson, Jermaine Carelse, said their crew was alerted at around 2:45am of informal structures alight in Mvubu Road.
No injuries and fatalities were reported.
“A total of 13 firefighting resources were on scene with over 40 firefighters battling the blaze that was fanned by a very strong wind,” Carelse said.
The fire was contained and extinguished by 8:40am.
Carelse said initial estimates were that over 100 informal structures were destroyed, leaving over 400 people displaced.
Disaster relief organisation, Gift of the Givers, were on scene yesterday to carry out assessments after receiving a call from community leaders requesting urgent intervention.
Project manager Ali Sablay said: “So far, it's total carnage. As the fire department left, residents started going back into the informal settlement trying to scratch through the rubble to see what they could save but everything was completely burnt out. All credit due to the City of Cape Town fire services who under a challenging situation prevented a much bigger disaster.”
Gift of the Givers teams provided the affected families with hot meals and further humanitarian aid will be rendered today.
Meanwhile, with the month of Ramadaan, synonymous with increased acts of charity and feeding of those less fortunate, Gift of the Givers started its mass packing of food aid to be distributed across the Western Cape throughout the holy month.
On Saturday, tonnes of ingredients were packed by Gift of the Givers volunteers at its logistics centre, to be distributed to a number of organisations that will be distributing food to fasting and hungry person's everyday for the month of Ramadaan.
“For the last 14 years, Gift of the Givers, with our assessments in communities around the Western Cape, we saw the need for underprivileged Muslims not having anything in their homes to end the day of fast.
“So we have been assisting mosques around the Western Cape for them to cook on a daily basis to provide meals for families,” Sablay said.
The organisation has been supporting 20 of these centres on a permanent basis for the past 14 years.