WALVIS BAY – A three-year-old toddler died after a massive fire tore through homes in Walvis Bay’s Tutaleni, displacing over 100.
The latest incident happened on Friday afternoon when a minor child allegedly left a pot on the stove, locked the shack and left. Police say the unattended pot started the fire that spread to adjacent shacks in four properties, despite the quick response of the fire brigade.
An urgent appeal has been made to central government to channel additional funds towards better housing, especially at Walvis Bay, where the local authority has been grappling with the issue of shack fires for years. The plea was made by local authority councillor Richard Hoaeb yesterday. He said the fact that shacks are burning more than usual is an outcry for the housing challenge which the town faces, and should not be taken lightly. “It speaks volumes, and is a grim reality of the housing crisis in Walvis Bay. Our people should not be staying in shacks while we have vast land available. We should not be losing lives due to shack fires,” Hoaeb emphasised. He added that central government should allocate more funds to their line ministry so that local authorities are in a better position to build decent houses for residents. Walvis Bay Rural constituency councillor Florian Tegako also said shack fires are a problem, especially to the most vulnerable community members of his constituency. “They are not sleeping at night, as fires have become a problem. Even a normal beep makes one think that it is a fire. That is how traumatising these fires are,” he observed. Tegako added that residents are also very frustrated and want to assault councillors and the fire brigade at fires scenes out of frustration.
“People are crying, and want to fight the councillors and the fire brigade as they are losing a lot,” he said shortly after the fire was extinguished. According to him, insurance companies also don’t want to pay homeowners for damages caused by shack fires. Hence, a lot of homeowners do not want to accommodate shacks in their yards. “Everyone must come together and solve this problem. Central government must declare shack fires as national disasters, find a solution with local authorities and build decent houses for our people,” Tegako stressed. The Walvis Bay municipality yesterday indicated that temporary accommodation in the form of tents has been allocated to the fire victims. The municipality, along with charity body Round Table, also provided food, clothes and blankets to the victims. Meanwhile, the deceased toddler was identified as Immanuel Iyaloo Abisalom. He was allegedly left in the care of someone else by his mother, who has been selling kapana at the town. Onlookers said Abisalom was nowhere to be found when the fire broke out. It was only after the fire was extinguished that his lifeless body was found among the rubble. Shack fires have for the past three years left close to 400 people homeless at Walvis Bay. So far, only 150 fire victims were assisted with homes that were built through the assistance of the Namibian government and the Walvis Bay municipality after they were left homeless in a devastating shack fire in 2020 in the Twaloloka informal suburb. A further 27 families are currently also living in shacks for more than a year after their shacks burnt down on 20 January last year.
edeklerk@nepc.com.na