A family of four have been left destitute after a fire ravaged their shack on Sunday night, destroying all their belongings.
The blaze broke out at approximately 10.30pm in the informal settlement of Red Hill.
Siyabonga Siyo said he and his wife, Vuyiseka Gcememe, and their two children Mila,12, and Siyavuya Gcememe, 8, were asleep when the fire broke out at the back of their shack.
He said a passer-by had alerted him of the fire but by that time it had already spread and there was nothing he could do.
“As I rushed to the back of the house all I could see were big flames,” he said.
By the time the fire department had arrived, he said, it was too late. The entire shack had been destroyed.
“We have nothing left. Our home, clothes, and food are all gone,” he said.
The City’s Fire and Rescue Service spokesman Edward Bosch said it received the call of a fire at 10.39pm on Sunday September 8.
He said three fire engines, one water tanker and one rescue vehicle were dispatched to the scene.
The fire destroyed five informal dwellings leaving seven people displaced, he said, adding that a woman had sustained cuts to her hand.
The fire was extinguished at 00.42am and the cause is unknown.
Siyavuya is in Grade 1 at Simon’s Town School, and Mila is in Grade 5 at Kleinberg Primary School in Ocean View.
Both schools are appealing to the community to assist the family with clothing, bedding, tinned and dry food, books and stationery or monetary donations.
Mr Siyo said the family was currently living with family members until they could rebuild their home. He said while there were “many people in one household”, he was grateful to them for helping his family.
Should you wish to donate, call Kleinberg Primary School at 021 783 1741.
