IT'S alleged that bright, beautiful and colourful firecrackers are the cause of a community's dark new year.
This as residents from Barcelona Informal Settlement in Gugulethu lost everything in a freak fire incident which happened on Tuesday, 2 January.
Resident Zintle Ngxiki (44) alleges the fire was caused by kids who were playing with firecrackers in the middle of the shacks within the area.
“It is alleged that a four-year-old boy was playing with firecrackers with his friends. A firecracker fell on an old mattress causing the fire which caused the damage to our shacks.
"I have lost everything because I wasn't at home. I'd bought back-to-school goods for my three kids, and now I’m back to zero,” she said.
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Another resident Nonkosi Mhlontlo (33) said her shack survived, but her neighbour who's still in the Eastern Cape on holiday lost everything.
“She'll come back to a pile of ashes. I've been trying to get hold of her but she's unavailable on her phone. It's so difficult to start the new year on a negative note since everything that is lost must be replaced,” she said.
Residents were gatvol that parents still buy firecrackers for kids yet they don’t take them to safe places to use them.
City of Cape Town’s Fire and Rescue Service spokesman Jermaine Carelse said they received the emergency call about structures in flames in Barcelona at 2:10pm on Tuesday, 2 January.
“Crews from Lansdowne, Mitchells Plain and Kuils River were on scene. They managed to extinguish the fire by 04:30pm which destroyed approximately 30 structures and left 100 persons displaced. The cause of the fire is unknown, and no injuries or fatalities were reported,” said Carelse.
