Relief efforts continue for fire-affected Dunoon households

14 January 2026

Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis today joined City teams and NPO partners in Dunoon Site 5 distributing essentials donated by Capetonians at various City fire station drop-off points. The Mayor was joined by Councillor Carl Pophaim, Mayoral Committee Member for Human Settlements.

City staff have reached out to all those affected, registering 2 604 people and 632 structures impacted by the fire. The City has supplied these verified personal details to National Government for urgent release of reconstruction kits and further relief via the South African Social Services Agency (SASSA).

This follows a major City Fire and Rescue Services effort to contain the blaze in windy conditions on 9 January, also involving two helicopters water-bombing, preventing the fire from spreading to hundreds more adjacent homes. No lives were lost despite this being a major fire incident.

‘Residents here in Dunoon Site 5 are very grateful for the kindness shown by so many Capetonians who dropped off donations at our various fire stations. This was a devastating fire for so many, and once again, Cape Town has shown great spirit and togetherness in response. We appreciate the work of our NPO partners, including Gift of the Givers, the brave firefighters, City staff who spent long hours working on-site and reaching out to all affected, and all Capetonians who have made a contribution,’ said Mayor Hill-Lewis.

Following the fire, City teams have already cleared the site of debris and conducted repairs to basic services infrastructure. This includes teams from Informal Settlements Management, Urban Waste Management, Disaster Risk Management, and Fire and Rescue Services, among others.

The City has further set aside R12m with contractors on hand ready to do re-blocking for safer access routes between households and future fire mitigation. This work is dependent on community consent as there has been resistance to these efforts largely due to unhappiness with historical National Government delays pertaining to the development of an upgrading programme.
 
‘I’ve been on site various times since the weekend and the City urges the National Department of Human Settlements to act with urgency in releasing emergency rebuilding kits to affected residents as quickly as possible. This is a role we hope to again take over, so that this relief can be directly released by the City as was the case a few years ago.

‘We were the only metro in South Africa to provide such a service to fire- and flood-affected informal residents and we could provide this material relief within days. However, this has been negatively impacted by the centralisation of this emergency assistance to a national level, resulting in longer turnaround times for this assistance. We have been talking to the national government non-stop so that the City can again be the service provider to help residents fast. We have the expertise to assist and a very thorough understanding of situations on the ground,’ said Councillor Pophaim.

Published by:
City of Cape Town, Media Office