Durban Child Missing After Blaze Burns Down Thousands of Homes at KZN Informal Settlement, Fire Claims 1 Life

• Thousands have been left homeless after a fire ravaged the Kennedy Road informal settlement in Durban
• It is estimated that roughly 1 000 homes burned down, while one person has been killed and a child reported missing
• The informal settlement's residents have speculated that the devastating fire was deliberately caused after an argument

DURBAN - A devastating fire has ripped through the Kennedy Road informal settlement outside the Durban CBD in KwaZulu-Natal, razing about 1 000 homes to the ground.

The incident occurred in the early hours of Sunday, 16 July.

KZN informal settlement fire claims 1 life, one child missing

A frantic search is underway after one child went missing during the chaos of the blaze. An adult male was also tragically killed in the fire.

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The spokesperson for the fire department, Nkulumo Dube, said that the South African Police Service's search and rescue did a sweep of the area but came out empty-handed, EWN reported.

Kennedy Road informal settlement residents speculate about cause of blaze

While the exact cause of the fire has not been verified by the authorities, the community claims the raging blaze was sparked by an argument.

Ward 25 PR councillor Siboniso Sibisi said witnesses claimed that someone deliberately set fire to the house of the person he was arguing with, causing the rest of the houses in the settlement to burn down, News24 reported.

The province's disaster management and Gift of the Givers are on the ground to help the community and provide relief to the victims of the devastating fire.

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Mamelodi informal settlement engulfed in flames, claiming lives of father and 2 children in tragic shack fire

Similarly, Briefly News reported that a fire tore through the Transit Camp in Mamelodi, Tshwane, on Wednesday, 12 June, leaving destruction and tragedy in its wake.

A father and his two children were sadly caught in a shack fire which ultimately claimed their lives.

The Tshwane Emergency Services Spokesperson, Charles Mabaso, said that firefighters responded to a call that multiple at the transit camp were on fire in the early hours of the morning.

Source: Briefly News