{"id":913889,"date":"2022-01-06T10:17:03","date_gmt":"2022-01-06T10:17:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/news\/2022\/01\/06\/seven-families-left-destitute-by-fire-in-cape-town-informal-settlement\/"},"modified":"2022-01-06T10:17:03","modified_gmt":"2022-01-06T10:17:03","slug":"seven-families-left-destitute-by-fire-in-cape-town-informal-settlement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/01\/06\/seven-families-left-destitute-by-fire-in-cape-town-informal-settlement\/","title":{"rendered":"Seven families left destitute by fire in Cape Town informal settlement"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div><!--sse--><\/p>\n<p>Cape Town \u2013 A community is reeling in shock after several families were left with nothing but the clothes on their backs after a fire ravaged through an informal settlement in Cape Town on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>Seven dwellings from the Cathkin Village informal settlement in Heideveld burnt to the ground in what is suspected to be a case of arson.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Fortunately, no injuries or fatalities were reported.<\/p>\n<p>According to the City of Cape Town\u2019s Fire and Rescue spokesperson, Jermaine Carelse said firefighters received the call-out to structures alight in Fifth Avenue at 4.13am.<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"baobab-embedded-image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/3e313f7c-739a-5477-806a-9fc30d20a129&#038;operation=CROP&#038;offset=0x24&#038;resize=1280x720.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"610\"><figcaption>A fire ripped through the Cathkin Village informal Settlement in Heideveld on Thursday morning. Photo: supplied<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cCrews from Epping, Gugulethu and Ottery fire stations responded, with a total of five firefighting appliances and 24 firefighters arriving to fight the fire.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"RelatedArticlescss__StyledRelatedArticles-sc-10g88yu-0 ezIKFV\">\n<h2><span>MORE ON THIS<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>\u201cThe blaze was extinguished by 5.55am,\u201d Carelse said.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to , resident and chairman of the Brothers for Justice neighbourhood watch, Abdullah Jack, said investigations were under way as the fire was suspected to be a case of arson.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne of our members living in the flats adjacent to the camp saw three guys standing by the wendy houses and immediately after, the fire started,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"baobab-embedded-image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/d8f6bba6-20c5-5cbe-aae5-06c99d0a15a5&#038;operation=CROP&#038;offset=0x0&#038;resize=1280x720.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"610\"><figcaption>A fire ripped through the Cathkin Village informal Settlement in Heideveld on Thursday morning. Photo: supplied<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Witnesses immediately informed residents, but Jack said the affected families lost everything.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSeven dwellings were affected which include an elderly couple looking after their grandchildren, one is blind and the other has autism. Another affected resident is a cancer patient,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>There was also a great concern as a number of children have been affected and school starts in the next two weeks.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Jack said they have also been struggling without water for a week.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe City used to drop water at the camp, however, for the past week there has been no water.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA committee has been formed to establish why there is no longer water,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Anyone willing to donate anything to the affected families is urged to contact the Cathkin Village manager Faranaaz Lakay on 082 294 0441.<\/p>\n<p>[email&nbsp;protected]<\/p>\n<p><strong id=\"strong-d0779aa85acb20e1fd1154a39f3e5fa7\"><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cape Town \u2013 A community is reeling in shock after several families were left with nothing but the clothes on their backs after a fire ravaged through an informal settlement in Cape Town on Thursday. Seven dwellings from the Cathkin Village informal settlement in Heideveld burnt to the ground in what is suspected to be [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-913889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-headlines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/913889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=913889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/913889\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=913889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=913889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=913889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}