Blairgowrie house fire exposes overcrowding
Precious Mphuthi, a resident of the property, said about 100 people are living on the property.
Following a fire that broke out at a suspected hijacked property on the corner of Loots and Republic roads in Blairgowrie on March 12, concerns have been raised about the issue of overcrowding in the area.
According to Battalion Chief Rudi Swanepoel from Fire Ops, the fire originated from stacked tyres. “When we arrived, we saw the flames and the smoke and I did an assessment. I dispatched more vehicles over the radio and we found that it was tyres and debris burning at the back of the house starting to set the house alight.”
Fortunately, there were no fatalities or injuries reported. However, the incident has shed light on the dire living conditions faced by many in the community.
Precious Mphuthi, a property resident, highlighted the overcrowding issue and its impact on daily life.
“It’s not safe, there’s rats, stolen items and people are always getting arrested. I have been staying here for more than three years. We don’t know what to do. I am pleading, I am working. We are hustling and suffering. Any small money that we make, we buy food, we also have kids.”
Mphuhti added there was no regulation on how many people are allowed in the house. “We want the government to help us with this house because 100 people are living here. There are people from Ghana and Zimbabwe. We have people from all around Africa.”
Harold Flieshman, the co-chair of the Blairgowrie Community Association, said this is not the only house in the area that is overpopulated. “There are houses like this in and around Blairgowrie, however, we were unaware of this specific house. People generally make a way to move into houses like this, a lot of the time they are houses that were used as business properties.”
Fleishman emphasised the urgency of addressing overcrowding in the community. “It’s not a pretty situation, crime goes up. They often experience sewerage overload, rodents become a problem, the area begins to devalue and crime increases because a lot of the time, the people that live in these houses are unemployed and turn to crime to support themselves and their families.”
A response from the City of Johannesburg regarding the impacts of overcrowded living conditions on the community and the plans to address them, is being sought and will be published when they are made available.
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