News24 | Dunoon fire: 5 500 left homeless in ‘largest Cape settlement fire since 2013’

City of Cape Town officials and humanitarian organisations are coordinating massive relief efforts after Friday's devastating Dunoon fire.

• Gift of the Givers describes the Dunoon blaze as the largest informal settlement fire in the Western Cape since Khayelitsha 2013.
• Over 1 000 shacks were destroyed in windy conditions, which required extensive aerial firefighting operations.
• City of Cape Town officials were on Saturday still registering affected residents.

Recovery operations are in full swing following Friday’s catastrophic fire that tore through Dunoon’s Site 5 informal settlement, with officials revealing the true scale of devastation affecting thousands of residents.

Gift of the Givers founder Imtiaz Sooliman described the blaze as “probably the largest informal settlement fire in the Western Cape since the Khayelitsha fire of 2013”, stating that “5 500 of our fellow compatriots became refugees in their own space as in excess of 1 000 dwellings were totally obliterated”.

The mayor of Cape Town, Geordin Hill-Lewis, who visited the site on Saturday morning, confirmed the massive firefighting effort required to contain the blaze.

“Because of the high winds, it was a very tough fire to extinguish. In the end, it required two helicopters and more than 12 fire engines to extinguish it at around 19:00 last night,” he said.

Despite the extensive destruction, Hill-Lewis expressed relief at the absence of casualties.

“Early indications are that somewhere between 900 and 1500 shacks were destroyed in this fire. We are very fortunate that so far we’ve had no fatalities.”

The humanitarian response has been swift and comprehensive.

READ | Land of fire: Blaze continues in Kouga, while firefighters battle lines near Franschoek

According to Sooliman, Gift of the Givers “fed 3 000 residents and the 220 remarkable public servants” on Friday night, with “breakfast provided to 3 500 individuals” on Saturday morning, with continuing support planned for the days ahead.

City Disaster Risk Management spokesperson Charlotte Powell on Saturday confirmed that they were still busy with the registration of affected persons, adding that “this was a major incident”.

The registration process will enable government relief, with Powell explaining that “once the impact of the fire has been confirmed and all affected persons registered, the lists will be submitted to the provincial Department of Social Development and the national Department of Human Settlements for relief.”

Mayoral Committee Member for Human Settlements Carl Pophaim, during Saturday’s visit to the area, urged the national Department of Human Settlements to act with urgency in releasing reconstruction kits to affected residents as quickly as possible.

“The City continues to advocate for the human settlements disaster mandate and funding to be devolved, so that we can cut out the national middle man.”

Meanwhile, donation drives continue across multiple fire stations, with Hill-Lewis encouraging public support:

Meanwhile, in Ekurhuleni, two people have died following a fire that engulfed multiple shacks in the Marathon Informal Settlement, Primrose.

City of Ekurhuleni Disaster and Emergency Services spokesperson Eric Maloka said firefighters managed to extinguish the blaze which broke out in the early hours of Saturday morning.

And, on the southern coast, firefighters continue to battle multiple blazes across the Western and Eastern Cape.