Family escape with their lives but lose everything in devastating fire

A mother and her three children escaped with only the pyjamas they were wearing after flames ripped through their home.

Sandisa Njana and her three children escaped with their lives but lost everything they possessed when a fire tore through their house in the Samora Machel informal settlement outside Cape Town on Saturday night, just days before schools reopen.

The family was asleep when Njana’s 15-year-old daughter awoke to find the two-bedroomed house engulfed in flames and screamed for her mother to wake up.

The blaze left Njana, her children aged 24, 15 and four, with almost nothing. The 15-year-old lost her school uniform, bag and textbooks ahead of the new school term. Four neighbouring shacks were also destroyed.

Speaking to the Sunday Times on Monday, Njana’s eldest daughter, Sethu, said the family had no option but to spend the night in an old storage shack.

“We heard the fire may have started after a resident threw away a cigarette butt. His blankets apparently caught alight, and the fire spread to the neighbouring homes. By the time my younger sister screamed for my mother to wake up, the flames were already inside our house,” she said.

Sethu said residents tried to extinguish the blaze, but low water pressure from nearby taps hampered their efforts.

“We’re trying to salvage whatever we can from the debris. That’s why we slept in the old storage shack, to guard the little that is left,” she said.

I had to borrow a gown and shoes from my neighbours. I lost everything, including the generator I used during electricity outages.

—  Sandisa Njana

Speaking to a local media outlet, Njana said the family escaped with only the pyjamas they were wearing.

“I had to borrow a gown and shoes from my neighbours. I lost everything, including the generator I used during electricity outages,” she said.

Sethu said the family has no idea how they will recover from the devastating loss.

“I am the only one working at a retail shop, and my salary is not enough to replace everything we have lost. I am especially worried about my little sister because she no longer has a school uniform, and it’s very cold in Cape Town,” she said.

The tragedy comes just six months after Sandisa narrowly escaped unharmed when her car caught fire while she was driving it.

The City of Cape Town said seven people died in separate fire incidents across the metro last weekend.

Mayoral committee member for safety and security JP Smith said residential fires have increased compared with the same period last year.

Between June 1 and July 13 2025, firefighters responded to 214 fires at formal homes and 203 in informal settlements. During the same period this year, those figures rose to 223 fires in formal residential areas and 250 in informal settlement areas.

“The threat of fire is ever-present, but even more so now as residents use a variety of heating devices to keep warm,” Smith said.