A tragic night fire at the Plastic View informal settlement in Pretoria has claimed the life of a 13-year-old girl and destroyed more than 100 homes, leaving hundreds of residents displaced.
The fatal blaze broke out late on Thursday night, reportedly triggered by a gas leak.
According to community leader Primrose Gwamuri, the fire erupted when a family attempted to light a stove, unaware that their fridge was leaking gas.
“They did not know that their fridge was leaking gas. The kitchen caught fire, and the flames grew out of control,” Gwamuri said.
The 13-year-old victim was trapped inside a separate room.
“The child that was burnt to death was sleeping in a room where the door was locked from the inside, so she was trapped,” Gwamuri explained.
“The father ran into the fire to try to save his child, but couldn’t.”
Both parents sustained severe burns during the rescue attempt and are receiving medical treatment at a local hospital.
The City of Tshwane emergency services department deployed teams from multiple stations before midnight to battle the fast-moving flames.
Between 100 and 150 shacks had been reduced to ashes in the area.
Residents said they were left with no place to sleep and the morning brought the reality of total loss.
Most residents started rebuilding their shacks on Friday through the smoking debris, searching for any salvageable materials to begin rebuilding.
A resident, Reginah Mashaba, who fled with her six-year-old child and husband, described the terrifying speed of the fire.
Mashaba said she had no time to gather any belongings, choosing only to grab her child and run to safety.
“The fire has brought unimaginable heartbreak,” Mashaba said.
With no food, clothing or shelter, her family spent the night sleeping in the open air next to the ruins of their home.
“We currently have nowhere else to go and will have to rebuild our shack and then start afresh. We only have these clothes that we are wearing, no pots, no toiletries, it’s just us as you see. We will continue staying outside by the ruins of the fire while we rebuild.”
Another survivor, Teressa Khumbula, recalled waking up to the smell of smoke and panic.
“I rushed out of the house immediately without even having time to put on clothes,” Khumbula said, wearing clothes donated to her by onlookers.
“I was fully naked when I came out of my shack.”
Khumbula, who has lived in the area for two years, expressed growing concern over safety in the settlement, noting that a similar fire had occurred just the previous Sunday.
“Two years ago, fires were not an issue, but the problem has started occurring this year,” she said.
“This is the first time I have been personally affected.”
Disaster risk management teams and emergency officials remain on the scene to conduct mop-up operations and assess the full scale of the damage.
Tshwane emergency services spokesperson, Nana Radebe-Kgiba, said officials are still counting the exact number of displaced individuals to ensure aid is distributed accurately.
Radebe-Kgiba confirmed that preliminary investigations pointed to a leaking gas cylinder as the cause of the blaze.
“The city is currently partnering with various departments and NGOs to co-ordinate urgent relief,” Radebe-Kgiba stated, adding that the city conveyed its sincere condolences to the bereaved family and all residents affected.
TimesLIVE
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