Thousands left homeless as blaze ravages Cape Town informal settlements

A Gift of the Givers team at Phola Park informal settlement in Cape Town after a fire tore through the area. (Photo: Twitter / @GiftoftheGivers)

By Naledi Sikhakhane

6 Jan 2023

Shack dwellers in Phola Park informal settlement in Philippi outside Cape Town have had a rough start to the year as they struggle to recover from their second fire in four days.

More than 500 residents of Phola Park in Philippi, Cape Town, lost their homes on Thursday after the second fire in under a week tore through the informal settlement.

The latest disaster came after a woman died and hundreds of shacks were razed in a fire on Sunday. That blaze left around 1,000 people homeless.

Residents said that after a rolling blackout on Thursday a fire broke out when the power returned and quickly swept through the shacks.

Samkelo Songweni, 40, says he managed to grab some important documents, but lost everything he owned.

fire cape town Residents of Phola Park in Philippi, Cape Town, have been left with the clothes on their backs after a fire. (Photo: Supplied)

“I was just relaxing when the electricity went off at 2pm — we had load shedding — and within two or three minutes (of the electricity being restored) I heard that there was a fire. I could already see the smoke and I had just three minutes to save my life,” said Songweni.

Speaking to a volunteer from Gift of the Givers, Songweni said he was grateful that his children were on holiday in the Eastern Cape when the fire broke out.

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Cape Town Fire and Rescue Service spokesperson Jermaine Carelse said “a strong southeaster fanned the fire that broke out. Several crews were on the scene with eight fire-fighting appliances and managed to contain the blaze.”

A team from Gift of the Givers arrived at the site while firefighters were putting out the blaze late on Thursday, and began providing humanitarian assistance on Friday morning.

Gift of the Givers’ Ali Sablay said some people were staying with friends, but others were afraid to leave their plots for fear that they would be occupied.

“The situation on the ground is so dire and people are devastated. What is sad is that some of the people affected in Phola Park are away in the Eastern Cape.

fire gift of the givers Gift of the Givers and firefighters at Phola Park, in Cape Town. (Photo: Supplied)

Gift of the Givers have been among the first the respond to fires that have displaced thousands of people over the holiday period. They are providing hot meals for victims, blankets, toiletry packs, baby care packs, blankets, bottled water as some taps are affected, and counselling. There have been five fires in the past seven days.

“Many of the children are suffering severe trauma… a father told us he had to throw his child over the wall to save them… some parents would have to throw children to neighbours and they only found them after an hour or two. All people’s stokvels, food, savings, and new school uniforms are completely burnt,” said Sablay.

Fires after rolling blackouts

Thys Steenkamp, an investigator at IGNIS Forensic Fire Investigations and Prevention said in a radio interview that there was a trend of fires breaking out between one and five minutes after power has been restored after rolling blackouts. He acknowledged that there was no data, studies or stats on the phenomenon, but questioned whether this was simply coincidence.

“In the past month, of the 30 fires we had, 16 happened five to 10 minutes after electricity was restored by Eskom. After all the investigations we are doing, it’s a trend,” said Steenkamp.

“While many think switching the power on or off is a simple task, the way load shedding works means that every time the power comes back, some technician has flipped the switch at a substation, suddenly sending a stream of around 11,000 volts back into the circuit,” an associate member of the Electrical Contractors Association, Rhodam Evans, explained.

fire cape town gift of givers A Gift of the Givers team at Phola Park informal settlement in Cape Town after a fire tore through the area. (Photo: Twitter / @GiftoftheGivers)

“Single-phase power in the average home runs on 230 volts. Therefore, when the lights come on again, all the appliances in that particular suburb suddenly get a surge and voltage spike much more powerful than 230 volts. This only lasts for a microsecond, but it is enough to damage electrical equipment, from your television to your lights,” Evans added.

The Philippi fires follow a deadly blaze over the holiday period in Masiphumelele on the Cape Peninsula. Three people died and 200 shacks were destroyed on New Year’s Eve. Before that, there was a fire in Dunoon, where 300 residents were affected.

Read more in Daily Maverick: “After another fire rips through ‘tortured’ Masiphumelele, community members weigh in on struggles and solutions”

The fires in Phola Park, Dunoon and Masiphumelele over the holiday period have led to almost 1,000 people losing all their belongings and who are now displaced in Cape Town. MC/DM

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Fires after rolling blackouts