No injuries reported as fire razes informal dwellings at Wingfield

Firefighters.

The City of Cape Town has activated its Disaster Risk Management Centre to coordinate efforts to assist those affected by the fire that has destroyed the tent housing refugees and several informal structures at Wingfield in Maitland, Cape Town.

No injuries or fatalities have been reported. Disaster Risk management says it is liaising with shelters and safe spaces to determine the availability of bed spaces for the fire victims.

The humanitarian organisation, Gift of the Givers, is also assisting the fire victims.

Earlier this year, the City of Cape Town together with the Ministers of Home Affairs and Public Works, applied to the High Court in Cape Town to evict refugees from emergency housing sites in Maitland and Bellville.

About 150 residents still reside at the Maitland camp. The residents are opposed to the eviction notice which is set to be heard in court next year. Residents say they are devastated.

“Talking about having no place to sleep and that they have lost everything including their clothes.”