There were once shacks against this fence in the quarry.
One person was injured and three shacks burnt down in a fire at the quarry off Strand Street in the early hours of Monday, September 12.
The Atlantic Sun reported on a fire at the same location last month, (17 homeless as fire destroys quarry shacks, August 18.)
Jermaine Carelse, spokesperson for the City’s Fire and Rescue Service, said the incident was reported at 1.20am.
“A boy sustained burn wounds to the hands, face, and shoulders and was taken to a nearby hospital. Three make-shift structures were destroyed, leaving a number of persons displaced. The cause is undetermined and the fire was extinguished just after 2.05am,” he said.
Natasha Lekay, 17, who has been living at the quarry for four years, claims that 13 people were affected and their IDs and belongings have been destroyed.
“I was returning to the place when I saw the fire trucks, I saw my place, all our places, were destroyed by the fire,” said Ms Lekay.
Ms Lekay says they did not get any assistance from the City of Cape Town officials that visited the site.
James Dunbar, 62, says by the time he woke up the fire was raging and burnt their shacks down in a matter of minutes.
“I don’t know what caused it but it happened so quickly. Luckily my friend shouted at me to get out of the tent. The officials that were here told us not to build anything here,” Mr Dunbar said.
Hein Peters, 37, says that they were told by Law Enforcement not to rebuild their structures but officials informed them to ask for assistance at the City offices in town.
“I’m not sure what happened, I suspect someone fell asleep while a candle was still burning. So many of us lost our shelters and we are hungry, we haven’t received any help from anyone,” said Mr Peters.
Ward 77 councillor, Francine Higham, says that the illegal occupants have been offered alternative accommodation.
“At these facilities they will be given meals and supplied with blankets. I was at the site when a member of the public arrived to hand out food. He was allowed to distribute the food, but large groups of people started arriving and when we realised that there wasn't enough food for all the people arriving at the site we were concerned for his safety and suggested that he leave,” said Ms Higham.
She said social development officials were on site to offer the occupants assistance and alternative accommodation and this was accepted by two people.
“After much convincing, one of the young women has accepted assistance for her and her young child to go to the ACVV. Unfortunately, the other occupants have all rejected offers of alternative accommodation. While the cleaning teams were in the area, we also worked our way up along High Level Road, and our social development teams visited the occupants of the structures in this area. I'm happy to say that one of the young female occupants also accepted offers of assistance, and social development teams will try and reunite her with her family in East London,” she said.
The City of Cape Town's Street Peoples Unit (SPU) can be contacted on 0800 872 201 for those who are rough sleeping and need social development assistance.