NEARLY 800 shacks were destroyed on Monday morning by a fire in the Joe Slovo settlement in Langa on the Cape Flats, leaving an estimated 3500 people homeless. Fanned by a south-easter, the flames took hold in the early hours of the morning, and were only extinguished at dawn. Relief workers from the Red Cross and other organisations have distributed blankets and food to the newly homeless, many of whom are taking shelter in a nearby community centre.