South Africa: 4 killed in Khayelitsha shack fire

A family of four has been killed in a shack fire in Khayelitsha, Cape Town on Tuesday, according to a media report by The Citizen. The report said that three of the victims are children along with their 40-year-old mother.

The City of Cape Town's Fire and Rescue Services received an emergency call at 23:00 hours local time on Wednesday about the fire in informal structures in the area.

Sergeant Noloyiso Rwexana, police spokesperson confirmed that two girls, aged 5 and 8, and a boy, aged 7, died along with a 40-year-old woman. The cause of the fire is still unknown and the fire was extinguished at around midnight, said Rwexana.

Reports say that when firefighters arrived at the scene, they found that the structure had been destroyed. Fire and Rescue Services spokesperson Jermaine Carelse said, “a search of the property led to the discovery of the bodies of a woman, two girls, and a boy."

The incidences of fire are not new to the place, on November 03, 2019, two people died in a shack fire at the TR Section in Khayelitsha, according to a media report by News24.

On October 20, 2018, one person was killed and hundreds were displaced after a fire ravaged more than 200 wood and iron structures in Khayelitsha.