Scores of other shacks in an informal settlement on Van Wyk Road, in Brentwood Park, were damaged.
Col Martin van Nieuwenhuizen, Benoni SAPS acting station commander, told the City Times on the evening of the incident that a man was arrested and taken to hospital following the fire.
“He and his ex-girlfriend were fighting with each other,” Van Nieuwenhuizen said at the time of the fire.
“When she left, he set the shack on fire.”
Van Nieuwenhuizen added that the community members resorted to assaulting the man with anything on which they could lay their hands, following the fire.
Benoni SAPS spokesperson Lieut Nomsa Sekele said the man was released as there was insufficient evidence again him.
No other arrests had been made at the time of publishing.
