More than 700 shacks were destroyed after a massive fire swept across the Kya Sands informal settlement in Johannesburg South Africa, on October 9.
According to the statistics by Judah Community Development church, close to 3 500 people were displaced and 3 children dead after the fire, said to have been caused by (izinyoka-nyoka) illegal connections from electricity power lines, ravaged through the area.
The residents, mostly from rural South Africa and illegal migrants from Mozambique and Zimbabwe who cannot afford proper housing due to lack of education and legal documents, lost all their property in the fire.
A timeline of shack fires in 2014
•January 25 A fire believed to have been sparked by either a candle or a parrafin stove razes 17 shacks to the ground in Kya Sand, Randburg.
•January 26 A 29 year old man is killed in a shack fire in Durban Deep, believed to have been started by fighting residents.
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•June 10 A fire destroys 69 shacks in Alexandra township, leaving 150 people homeless.
•June 1 One person is burnt beyond recognition and five families are left homeless when a fire engulfs their homes in Zandspuit, north of Johnnesburg.
•August 24 A couple and a resident die in a blaze in Jeppestown.
•September 20 A man is burnt to death when his shack catches fire in Wynberg, Johannesburg. Two other shacks are destroyed.