Joe Slovo Settlement on fire
This Day in History: January 15, 2005
Additional Date: January 15, 2005
On this day the Joe Slovo informal settlement situated outside Cape Town was devastated by a shack fire. Seven people, including two children, were seriously injured, and thousands of houses destroyed leaving about 12 000 people homeless. For the first time, a helicopter was used in Cape Town to exterminate a shack fire.