In the mid-1990s, increasing numbers of residential fires were reported in informal settlements in metropolitan centres throughout South Africa. In the Western Cape, the high-density shack settlement of Maconi Beam was burnt to the ground twice in the first few months of 1996, leaving a dozen shack dwellers dead and thousands more homeless. These disasters were almost immediately followed by another runaway shack fire in the Glendene squatter camp which left over 1,500 people homeless. In Gauteng, several smaller residential fires have been reported in the high-density shack areas such as Phola Park and Alexandra. In July 1996, one of the largest shack fires ever reported in South Africa occurred in Duncan Village, East London. This fire, started by a paraffin flame stove in a densely settled shack area, destroyed over 1,000 homes in a single afternoon (SABC TV News 1996).

The increasing frequency and severity of shack fires in metropolitan areas has raised a number of vexing questions about contemporary urbanisation trends and settlement patterns in South African cities, as well as about fueluse practices in low-income urban neighbourhoods. Analysts are asking whether the current wave of urban disasters might not better be described as structural disasters, linked to social and economic forces, than as natural disasters. Fires, in particular, have raised public consciousness about the dangers of unplanned informal settlements, the high levels of dependence on paraffin as the primary domestic fuel among the urban poor, and about the types of appliances and fuel-safety standards applied in these areas. What is the responsibility of the state in ensuring that the urban poor have access to safe, affordable shelter and domestic energy sources which will not threaten lives and possessions? How can local-level fuel-use practices be modified to minimise the potential for fire disasters in shack areas? And, most importantly, what are the consequences of repeated residential fires on the social fabric of urban communities?

This chapter is primarily concerned with the last of these questions. It seeks to document the long-term consequences of repeated fire disasters ina single urban community. The case selected for investigation is Duncan Village in East London (see Figure 10.1) which has experienced over 400 residential fires since 1986.