Residents of Seawinds woke up to find about 30 homes ablaze. The official cause of the fire is unknown.
|||Cape Town - Residents of Seawinds woke up on Thursday morning to find about 30 homes ablaze.
While the official cause of the fire is unknown, residents say something went wrong with the electricity in the informal settlement near Lavender Hill.
Community leader Fawzia Cassiem said she ran through the streets to wake residents when she first saw the fire.
“We are very upset,” she said. “We are tired of these places burning. We have been squatting for 11 years now. It’s time the government puts us in real houses.”
Firefighters were dispatched to the Seawinds area around 8am.
City of Cape Town fire chief Theo Layne said Wynberg, Ottery and Lakeside fire stations responded to the fire. The three stations sent five fire engines, two water tankers and 33 firefighters to the area.
Cassiem said the water tankers arrived some time after the fire engines.
Everyone was evacuated in time, and no one was hurt, said EMS spokesman Robert Daniels.
Cape Argus