Cape Town - An early-morning fire in Khayelitsha claimed the lives of five people after firefighters found their home fully engulfed in flames on Friday.
The City’s Fire and Rescue Service said that a call for assistance was received at 1.50am and officers responded to the fire in Bhemye Crescent.
The City's Fire and Rescue spokesperson Jermaine Carelse said that despite a swift response to the scene, the firefighters found the structure fully engulfed in flames.
“The crew from Lansdowne Road fire station was soon on the scene where firefighters found a structure fully engulfed in flames. Although the firefighters managed to quickly extinguish the blaze, they came across the bodies of five people who had sustained fatal burn wounds.”
“The gender and ages of the victims are still unknown and the scene was handed over to the South African Police Service at 3.15am,” said Carelse
Provincial spokesperson Captain Frederick Van Wyk said that the cause of fire was yet established and an inquest case was opened for investigation.
Khayelitsha Development Forum chairperson Ndithini Tyhido said given that the Western Cape has half-a-million backlog of people waiting for houses, more needs to be done to prevent people from dying from fire.
“We are seriously devastated by the loss within the community and we pass on our heartfelt condolences to family members of the deceased.
“The issue of fires is crippling community members and it is so sad this has now spread to communities such as the K2 Block, which has been hounded by shacks, with no potential plan of development in that area,” said Tyhido.
He said that government should urgently implement plans to prevent fires.
“I feel that given the backlog of people who still need homes in the area, the city needs an intermediate plan that will help with fire prevention.
“I mean there are technologies nowadays that aid with that, and given that the city is working on developing houses for the community, technologies such as visual flame detectors and air sampling smoke detectors will help with preventing millions of people losing their homes and their lives,” said Tyhido.
Weekend Argus