Blazing destruction

RESIDENTS scrambled to salvage their belongings but the inferno that gutted more than 2 000 shacks in Kya Sand’s Msawawa informal settlement spread too rapidly for them to save much.

Thousands residents were displaced, the City of Joburg said.

Desperation was written all over the faces of the residents. Mothers with babies on their back carried loads on their heads, some schoolchildren, still in uniform, helped to save whatever they could. Others who had returned from work watched in disbelief.

Three men blamed the fire on a paraffin stove left unattended in a spaza shop.

The blaze spread to a car parked nearby and spread to the shacks. Firefighters battled to keep up as the wind caused the flames to spread fast.

Reside Keith Munthali said that since he settled there six years ago, there had never been a fire that destroyed so many shacks at once. “This is a disaster. We have never seen anything like this. My shack has burnt down. I don’t know what I will do.”

Ward 32 councillor Matome Mafokwane said Gauteng MEC for Co-operative Governance, Traditional Affairs and Human Settlements Jacob Mamabolo had told the community about plans to deliver houses in the area in place of shacks.

Mafokwane said disaster relief plans were in place. “Gift of the Givers and other NGOs are setting up tents and preparing supper. This is the biggest disaster we have had in Kya Sand.”

PICTURE: CONNALL OOSTERBROEK Scores of residents from the Msawawa informal settlement near Kya Sand in Randburg try to help extinguish a fire as it guts their homes yesterday. More than 2 000 homes were destroyed. No injuries were reported.