Relentless firefighting continued for an eighth consecutive day in fierce southerly winds in hot spots around Cape Town, with hundreds of people living in informal settlements displaced after fires ripped through their home over the Christmas period.
Firefighters have been stretched to the limit over the past eight days of the holiday season, with off-duty officers called in to contain blazes that have raged across the Cape Peninsula.
On Boxing Day on Tuesday, the city said it had responded to 42 incidents involving informal structure fires between 24 and 26 December, and the City’s Fire and Rescue Service was battling another flare-up on the Glencairn Expressway.
More than 100 homes, affecting about 900 people, were destroyed in three informal settlements in fires on Sunday and Christmas Day morning. Disaster Risk Management spokesperson Charlotte Powell said 135 structures were destroyed in the Hillview informal settlement in Capricorn near Muizenberg, 60 in Jim se Bos outside Mitchells Plain and 45 in Wallacedene on the eastern outskirts of Kraaifontein.
“The City, supported by nonprofit organisations Gift of the Givers and Islamic Relief SA, provided mattresses, hot meals, blankets, baby-care packs, clothing and toiletry packs to those affected,” she said.
Gift of the Givers operations manager Ali Sablay said that, owing to strong winds “it was impossible to save anything at Hillview. As soon as the structures caught light the wind spread the fire at a rapid pace.”
Community leaders had…