A fire gutted about 150 houses, displacing an estimated 300 people on Thursday at the Quarry Road informal settlement along the M19 in Durban.
EThekwini Municipality said the City’s Emergency Services quickly responded and efforts were made to evacuate occupants as the fire was spreading fast due to strong winds.
“The estimated number of destroyed units is 150 leaving 300 people displaced. No injuries or fatalities have been reported. A full sweep and thorough search was done to ensure that no one was trapped inside the informal dwellings,” said the City.
Marshall Security’s Andreas Mathios said the control room was inundated with calls reporting the massive fire and the community support team was dispatched to the scene.
“The challenge for firefighters was that there was a strong wind. EThekwini Fire Services requested additional resources which were dispatched.”
Mathios commended the fire department for arriving quickly.
“Seeing all these resources arrive timeously contributed to extinguishing the fire a lot quicker than was anticipated,” he said, adding that first responders and members of volunteer paramedic groups also arrived and it was good to see everyone coming together to assist.
“The one challenge was there were a lot of people running across the freeway to get away from the fire to save their belongings, but metro police together with SAPS Sydenham were also on scene and assisted and also controlled traffic in the area.”
The City confirmed that the fire had been extinguished and that emergency personnel, including disaster management teams would monitor the situation. A secondary survey was conducted to ensure no one was confined in the destroyed units.
“The cause of fire is unknown at this stage and an investigation is under way,” it said.
A preliminary assessment to determine the extent of the damage will be conducted, added the City.
“EThekwini Municipality is currently arranging temporary accommodation for displaced Quarry Road Informal Settlement residents,” said the City.
Reservoir Hills Ratepayers and Residents Association chairperson Ish Prahladh said he has a project running with We Feed SA, where he received 31 staff to help clean the M19.
Prahladh said when the fire broke out one of the staff called to alert him.
“I got all the staff to help the residents bring out their belongings.”
He said four staff from the clean-up campaign lost their homes.
“The people are standing around on the M19, it’s such a sad sight,” said Prahladh, adding that he was trying to get blankets and other items that are needed.
As from April 2023, disaster management and response to informal settlement fires falls under the national Department of Human Settlements.
“This includes provision of relief materials in the form of building materials. The municipality will profile the affected victims and hand over the information to national Human Settlements to provide assistance to affected victims,” said the City.
*Story is updated
The Mercury