Angelo shack fire kills man, leaves about 50 homeless
A 37-year-old man was burnt to death in a shack fire in Angelo Informal settlement that broke out on the morning of August 9.
The fire spread and gutted 40 other shacks, displacing about 50 people, including children, and others as young as one-year-old.
Boksburg SAPS spokesman, Lieut Mathanda Ngobese, confirmed the fire incident.
“A Mozambican man (Silverado Mumhambe) was burnt inside his shack when his shack caught fire. He was confirmed dead on the scene,” says Ngobese.
“Although it is suspected that the fire had been caused by an unattended paraffin stove, an investigation into the cause of the fire is underway.”
According to one of the fire victims, Dickson Patrick, the fire broke out at around 1.30am and destroyed everything.
“We managed to scramble out of our shacks as they burst into flames. We could not save anything but our lives,” says Patrick.
Patrick admitted that one of his 12 shacks he rented out to the deceased, was one of the first to catch the fire.
It then spread to 11 of his other shacks which he rented out to 10 families, before spreading to other shacks nearby.
Mumhambe leaves behind his wife and six children, who reside in Mozambique.
Some of the occupants of the others shacks say they fled the scene when they noticed that their shacks were in fire.
Nurse Lebeya says she and her family of four were woken up by the noise of people shouting “fire, fire,” at about 1.35am, at which point they kicked down the shack door to flee to safety.
The fire had by that time reached one side of Lebeya’s shack, but the municipal fire brigades who were said to have arrived within seven minutes, were quick to extinguish it before greater damage was done.
Lebeya congratulates the fire brigades for their quick response, adding that she believes that their actions spared hundreds of shacks from the fire.
The Advertiser visited the scene, finding residents struggling to rebuild their shacks.
Most did not have enough material and others said they were hungry.
Thandazile Ngubane, a neighbour who provided the victim’s children with a temporary shelter to sleep after the incident, said a list of names of those affected had already been compiled and will be sent to the Ekurhuleni Disaster Management office.
“We have asked the municipality to assist the victims with building materials, food parcels and blankets,” says Ngubane.
