Gladys Mmola, 69, lost everything after a raging fire destroyed her home and those of 163 other people in Alexandra, northern Joburg.
About 90 shacks built on top of a warehouse at 10th Avenue caught fire on Friday. There were no fatalities.
Mmola told Sowetan yesterday that she received a call from her children while she was at work informing her that the building was on fire.
“I lost everything. My heart is broken, everything is gone including my ID, my children’s birth certificates, school uniforms and all our clothes,” she said.
Mmola, who works at a ceiling manufacturing factory, said she has made arrangements for her children to sleep at the homes of people she knows in the area.
Some of the units in the building were still smouldering, while bed springs, clothing items, pots and photographs were strewn on the floors. The corrugated iron roof had also caved in.
“I won’t even be able to go work tomorrow (today) because I have to see how I can start putting my life back together. What we need at the moment is shelter,” Mmola said yesterday.
Along with other residents, Mmola was living in an old factory warehouse cordoned off into separate rooms. Some had built shacks on top of the building’s corrugated iron roof, where the fire is suspected to have started.
Joburg Emergency Management Services (JEMS) said the fire broke out after a resident left a stove on during loadshedding. When the electricity came back on, the stove also switched on.
Another resident, Nhlanhla Lusenga, 42, who lives with his brother, said he also lost all his possessions. Lusenga said most people had to sleep out in the streets since Friday because they had no shelter.
Lusenga said residents were unable to retrieve their belongings during the incident because the flames had grown too strong. “We had to run for safety. Fortunately no one was harmed,” he said.
Lebogang Kresieane, 34, who was among a group of women sitting outside the burnt structure, said she was also forced to sleep outside in the cold. “We have been sleeping outside because there is nowhere for us to go,” Kreseane said.
She said some people found shelter with friends and relatives while others were left with no alternative.
She said civic organisation Gift of the Givers arrived after the incident to provide them with meals, mattresses and blankets. “What we need more than anything is a place to sleep,” she said.
Community leader Wanda Buthelezi said residents felt abandoned as they were not provided with alternative shelter. “We have women and children here who were affected by the fire, with nowhere to go. We feel abandoned,” Buthelezi said.
JEMS spokesperson Nana Radede said they had recorded 221 fires during the winter season this year, with an expectation that numbers would rise during July and August.
One person was killed and 400 shacks destroyed when a fire broke out at the Kwa Mai Mai settlement in the Johannesburg CBD about two weeks ago.
Radebe said in 2021, 445 fires were reported in both informal and formal settlements.
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