A child died in a fire that destroyed about 60 shacks in an informal settlement off Lansdowne Road in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, on Monday, city fire-control spokesperson Gregory Carolissen said.
A fire in the same area early on Monday morning razed about 200 shacks.
Carolissen said the fire was reported at 5pm, and by 7pm firefighters had it under control and were damping down the area.
One infant — he did not know whether it was a boy or girl — was reported to have received ”fatal injuries”, which he said was likely to mean death from smoke inhalation rather than burn wounds.
Earlier, Cape Town disaster-management services spokesperson John Brown said between 200 and 250 shacks were destroyed in the morning fire.
He said no one was reported injured in that blaze, which began shortly after 6am and was under control by 9am. A helicopter had been used to water-bomb it.
He said disaster management estimated that up to 1 400 people were displaced by the fire, though an exact count was difficult because many occupants were away in the Eastern Cape for the festive season.
Registration of the victims of the morning fire had begun at 3pm, a process that entitled them to food parcels or meals for three days and put them in line for a R550 grant from the provincial social-services department and a rebuilding kit from the city’s human-settlement division.
There might, however, be a problem supplying the kit, which includes poles, corrugated iron and plastic, because the division has run out of materials owing to the recent spate of fires in the city, and the fact that suppliers have closed for the holidays.
Brown said there were about six other shack fires on Sunday night, most of them involving only one or two structures.
Probably 90% of the fires were caused by negligence, linked to the fact that many people did their cooking outside, on a brazier.
”It just needs one coal on plastic and the next minute the plastic goes,” he said.
The brush fire that raged over the weekend in the Blouberg/Melkbosstrand area, and which at one point threatened a caravan park and an old-age home, was ”basically under control”.
”They’re just monitoring the area,” he said.
Ground crews would stay there to monitor hot spots for possible flare-ups. — Sapa