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One person has died in one of two separate fires that broke out in Cape Town on Friday morning.
Fire and rescue spokesperson Jermaine Carelse said the man's body was found in an informal structure that had caught fire on premises in Marcia Street, Tafelsig, in the early hours of the morning.
Another man was pulled to safety earlier and taken to hospital for treatment for injuries sustained in the blaze in the Mitchells Plain area.
"The fire was extinguished at 03:36 and the scene was handed over to the South African Police Service," said Carelse.
A vehicle had also caught fire in that blaze.
Hours later, fire fighters were called to put out a fire at the Oude Moulen Eco Village near the Pinelands train station and the Vincent Pallotti Hospital.
Alexandra Road had to be closed in both directions between Raapenberg Road and Perseverance Street due to very thick smoke.
Carelse said several structures had burnt down, but the cause was not known yet.
A fire in a section of the Oude Moulen Eco Village was extinguished (Supplied by Jermaine Carelse)
The vast village consists of old hospital property that was repurposed for a wide range of micro-enterprises, which includes tourist accommodation, pop-up shops, and vegetable gardens.
The Oude Moulen Eco Village Tenants Association chairperson Hudson McComb told News24 five adults and five children living at the afffected buildings were physically unharmed. However, they were running small businesses - a relaxation spot, and a tuck shop, and they lost everything in the fire. This included their important documents.
They were being helped with in the aftermath regarding food and clothing and accommodation.
The difficult task of re-establishing their small businesses and replacing lost paperwork lies ahead of them. The rest of thr village was not affected.
Firefighters have been busy this week, with a derelict building in Josephine Road, Claremont.
In October, 51 new firefighters graduated from their rigorous training, in time for the busy summer fire season.
At the time, the city's Safety MMC JP Smith said the Fire and Rescue Service had noted a near 9% increase in vegetation fires year-on-year, between 2018 and 2019.
This, in turn, increased the overall number of fires that firefighters responded to – with just over 70% of all fires responded to being vegetation fires.
