Latest news with #informalSettlement
The Herald
19-07-2025
- The Herald
Woman and toddler die as fire razes more than 120 houses in Durban's Kennedy Road settlement
A Durban woman and an 18-month-old toddler died in a fire at the Kennedy Road informal settlement in the early hours of Saturday. eThekwini municipality said fire and emergency services and disaster management teams responded to the fire shortly after midnight at the sprawling settlement. The inferno destroyed about 122 informal structures and displaced more than 150 residents. 'Tragically, two lives were lost, a middle-aged woman and an 18-month-old toddler, both suffering fatal third-degree burns. No further injuries have been reported at this time,' the municipality said. Preliminary investigations suggest the fire may have originated from open flames, possibly due to an unattended stove. KwaZulu-Natal co-operative governance and traditional affairs MEC Thulasizwe Buthelezi has also dispatched disaster management teams and social partners to provide relief to the community. Buthelezi has urged communities to be vigilant when using fire to keep warm this weekend as the province faces cold temperatures and rains due to a cold front. 'We urge communities to exercise extreme caution, especially during colder days when the use of open flames, such as izimbawula and heaters, significantly increases the risk of fires,' he said. Buthelezi is expected to visit the area on Monday to provide further support to the victims. TimesLIVE
News24
19-07-2025
- News24
Woman, baby ‘locked' in home die in blaze as fire tears through Durban settlement
Nonhle Mbangwa and 18-month-old Niphiwe Zulu died in a shack, which was allegedly locked, during a midnight fire. The blaze destroyed 100 dwellings at Kennedy Road informal settlement, displacing 150 residents. The fire, which was eventually extinguished, may have originated from open flames, possibly due to an unattended stove. A 25-year-old woman and an 18-month-old baby boy died in a fire that ravaged about 100 dwellings at the Kennedy Road informal settlement in Durban in the early hours of Saturday morning. eThekwini fire department division commander Sifiso Mtshali said the suspected cause of the fire appeared to be open flames, potentially due to an unattended stove. READ | Nine die in KZN fire-related incidents, residents urged to be vigilant He said the fire, which broke out around midnight, had left about 150 people displaced. He said it took firefighters several hours to extinguish the blaze, which had managed to spread rapidly within an hour. 'We had a team of 19 firefighters, with five trucks having responded to the scene. The fire was put out using three rescue appliances, we also had two water carriers on scene.' According to residents who spoke to News24 on Saturday, the woman who died, Nonhle Mbangwa, had allegedly been locked in from the outside of her boyfriend's shack with the 18-month-old boy, and was unable to escape. Nonhle's mother, Sindiswa Mbanga, said the toddler, Niphiwe Zulu, was not her grandson, but was the child of Nonhle's friend. 'No one seems to know who locked her in from the outside. Neighbours heard the cries of the child from inside. Nonhle had only been here for two days; she had been home in the Eastern Cape for two months. If she wasn't locked in, she might have been able to escape,' said Mbanga. She said they had all been sitting around a fire on Friday night when Nonhle and the child's mother left for the shack. 'The child's mother left the child asleep with Nonhle and came back to sit around the fire with us.' Gift of the Givers arrived at the scene around 04:30 to assist residents. Bilall Jeewa, from the organisation, said: 'We have managed to get some tea and sandwiches for now because they have been up all night with children outside.' Resident Vusi Doncobe said he lost everything in the fire. 'At first we tried to put out the fire ourselves, fetching water from communal taps using buckets but it was spreading too quickly.' Last month, about 70 residents had to be rescued from the same informal settlement after a fire broke out at night. Around 40 shacks were destroyed in the blaze.
Arab News
24-05-2025
- Arab News
Fire in Nairobi informal settlement kills eight
NAIROBI: A fire tore through an informal settlement in the Kenyan capital Nairobi on Saturday, killing at least eight people, police fire in the city's Makina area began at around 5:00 am (0200 GMT), said police official Patricia Yegon.'Eight people were burnt to death, while several others were injured,' she said, without specifying how many were cause has not been established, but fires frequently occur in the capital's overcrowded and impoverished informal Kenyan Red Cross said 40 houses were affected before firefighters contained the blaze with the help of the local community.
The Herald
22-05-2025
- General
- The Herald
Boksburg resident dies in blaze, 21 firefighters assembled to limit damage to other shacks
A man in his 60s died in a multiple-shack fire in the Delmore informal settlement, Boksburg, on Wednesday night. William Ntladi from the City of Ekurhuleni emergency services team said a call was logged at about 11pm. 'The primary responding team of firefighters from Primrose fire station rapidly responded to the scene. They were backed up by those from Bedfordview, Germiston and Edenvale fire stations. The backup was activated due to the risk assessment conducted on the scene, with high possibilities of involving the entire informal settlement. 'The fire was spreading at an alarming speed due to wind.' A team comprising 21 firefighters used two attack lines to battle the blaze, Ntladi said. 'Flames were successfully extinguished before gaining momentum to spread to other shacks. 'Ten shacks were damaged in the blaze and an adult male was found under the ashes.' The cause of the blaze is undetermined. Ntladi said fire engines couldn't get close to the scene due to narrow roads in the settlement and self-connected overhead electrical cables which were not high enough to accommodate the size of fire engines. TimesLIVE
