For as long as shackdwellers are denied electricity the fires will keep coming. Winter is the worst time. But they come all the time. When the eThekwini Municipality decided to ‘discontinue the electrification of the informal settlements’ they were deciding to continue with avoidable fires rampaging through people’s lives. Their electrificity policy states that ‘In past (1990s) electrification was rolled out to all and sundry…electrification of the informal settlements has now been discontinued’.
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=vn20070522232447844C869489
The Star
Cold snap hits the destitute hard
By Thandi Skade and Sapa
Two baby boys are among at least 17 people reported dead from exposure to the icy wet weather gripping the country or in fires while trying to keep warm.
The boys, Kwaziyena (six months) and one-year-old Fikiswa Ngabuza, were killed when their shack near the Nancefield hostel in Soweto caught alight and burnt down on Tuesday.
Gauteng provincial police spokesperson, Superintendent Thembi Nkhwashu, said the fire broke out around 7am.
The children’s mother, Mbali Ndlela, 18, is believed to have left the boys in the shack – for only about 10 minutes – while she went to fetch water from a tap nearby.
Bali Sibisi, Ndlela’s neighbour, was the first person to respond to the fire. “I smelt smoke, so I went outside and found the shack on fire,” she said.
She tried to enter the shack to rescue the children, but could not as the flames were too big. Other neighbours and local residents also tried in vain to extinguish the fire.
Both Ndlela and Sabelo Ngabuza, 22 – the children’s father – were too distraught to speak, but the children’s grandmother, Bonisiwe Ndamani, said the family were devastated.
“It hurts so much. It hurts that there was nothing we could do. They (Ndlela and Ngabuza) have lost their children and all their belongings,” Ndamani said.
The cause of the fire was not known, but Superintendent Jonathan Mbambo said it could have been caused either by the brazier found in the remains or illegal electrical connections attached to a coil element.
http://www.themercury.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=3845012
Two infants among 17 victims of cold weather onslaught
May 23, 2007 Edition 1
STEPHANIE SAVILLE, XOLISWA ZULU, THANDI SKADE & SAPA
Two baby boys who were among at least the 17 people reported dead from exposure to the icy wet weather gripping the country or in fires while trying to keep warm.
The boys, Kwaziyena (6 months) and Fikiswa Ngabuza, 1, were killed when their shack in Soweto caught alight and burnt down yesterday.
In KwaZulu-Natal, the winter season is making itself felt, and shack fires are already a major concern for Durban firefighters.
Temperatures have plummeted around the country – in some areas to -4C – and emergency services have sent a strong warning to the public to be on the alert for fires and not to leave heaters, appliances or open flames unattended.
Although firefighters have been training extensively for any situation that might arise, eThekwini Fire and Disaster fireman Ellindhran Pillay said that the public did not realise the dangers of sleeping with heaters on and fires burning.
He said that 40% of the fires that they attended to during the winter season were shack fires.