Nine die in Christmas weekend fires in S.Africa’s Cape Town

Nine people died, including two children, and 1,500 were left homeless when fire engulfed hundreds of shacks in five separate incidents in South Africa’s Cape Town city, a firefighter said Monday.

“We had a total of 1,500 displaced… and a total of nine were fatally injured,” Theo Laye, station commander for the city’s Fire and Rescue Services, told AFP.

A five-year-old boy and a 15-year-old girl were among those killed.

“At this stage the causes of the fires are undetermined,” he said.

The blazes erupted between Saturday and Sunday.

In one of the incidents a runaway fire engulfed 300 shacks on Sunday morning, leaving 1,300 people homeless.

Shack fires are common in South Africa and are a perennial threat to the impoverished residents of sprawling informal settlements near major cities throughout South Africa.