Solutions needed for housing & overcrowding, says KZN NPO after informal settlement blaze
A Durban-based non-profit organisation says government needs to address the issue of housing and overcrowding at informal settlements to help curb mass fires.
Arianne Hayes-Hill from The Seed Fund has been commenting following a fire at the Malacca Road Informal Settlement in Durban North.
Forty dwellings were destroyed by Tuesday's blaze.
"People just move in, build new shacks and the provision of housing from a government perspective has been pretty flat and the thing is overcrowding, you get may three to five people living in a tiny shack and because of the building material, most of it, being wood is very flammable and it just needs one spark to start somewhere."
READ: Port Shepstone informal settlement hit by second fire
Hayes-Hill says the residents were still picking up the pieces from the last fire there four months ago.
Most of the NPO's beneficiaries are from the Malacca Road settlement.
One child had to be treated for smoke inhalation as a result of the fire.
eThekwini Fire's District Commander Bruce De Gier says because it was a windy day, the flames spread quickly.
"The blaze would have took about an hour to bring under control and extinguish. It presumed that the fire started by cooking, there is also a presumption that there are illegal electrical connections which is often the cause."
