Police are investigating after three people died in a Manenberg fire.
The fire broke out at a Gonubie Road home at about 3am on Tuesday November 8, said City Fire and Rescue Service spokesman Jermaine Carelse.
Crews from Epping, Gugulethu, and Ottery extinguished the fire by 5am.
The two-bedroomed house and two shacks were engulfed in flames, and a house next door was partially damaged, according to Mr Carelse.
“The bodies of the three victims, one female and two males, were discovered in a room in the formal structure. A third male received second-degree burn wounds and was taken to a nearby hospital. The cause of the fire is unknown and the scene was handed over to the South African Police Service,” he said.
Manenberg police station spokesman Ian Bennett said they were investigating, but the cause of the fire was unknown and no arrests had been made.
“We cannot speculate as to what the cause of the fire was. We are waiting on the autopsy report, which could take a couple of months. There have been rumours that the couple was found deceased in bed and the other person was the landlord, also deceased,” he said.
Neighbour Shamiela Edwards, who runs a soup kitchen in the area, said that the fire happened when one of the deceased lit a piece of paper to create light in the house when a dog ran inside with a cat in its mouth and they couldn’t see the dog because it was dark.
The dog ran under the bed and when the mattress was lifted to look for the dog the mattress caught fire and the flames spread to the rest of the house.
She said that the couple who died had been married for 13 years and had worked for her at the soup kitchen.
“They managed to escape but ran back in to save the landlord and as they wanted to leave, the door fell onto them and they couldn’t get out. The whole house burnt down,” she said.
She said three wendy houses in front of the house had burnt down, displacing more than 10 people who had now taken refuge in the shacks at the back of the house while others stayed elsewhere in the area.
Donations of food and clothing can be dropped off at 40 Gonubie Road, Manenberg, or 33 Belgravia Road, Belgravia Estate.