CAPE TOWN - A firefighter has offered an explanation of why hoses were cut amid a shack fire at the Joe Slovo informal settlement in Langa.
The blaze over the Easter long weekend left more than 700 people homeless and the cause remains undetermined. "The people are not cutting the water supply to stop us from putting out the fire. I think it's a case of panicking and they're wanting to pour the water on the fire themselves". "You know they are certain opportunists and criminality also involved, and it's not the whole community just some like over the weekend some altercation. Some panicking going on, and we find that it is a common occurrence it's not something unique"."At this entrance for example the access to the fire was two ways out, the water was also an issue because we found that most of the water hydrants were vandalised.