City of Cape Town ‘to focus on investigations’ once fires have been extinguished
The City of Cape Town says it will only focus on the investigation into the cause of this week’s runaway fires once they have all been extinguished.
The city held a press briefing on Tuesday to provide an update on its plans to contain the fire, which has been raging since Sunday.
Acting Chief Fire Officer Clinton Manuel says the city's priority is to douse all the blazes still raging.
"We will do a damage assessment once we've got our operational teams off the ground. We've got a team that will go in and do a damage assessment. We also need it for our statistical purposes.
"We are not at that point yet. Firstly we are trying to stop the fire and prevent any further flare-ups in order to normalise the situation and then we will do a damage control assessment.
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"We can only focus on the investigation once we have extinguished the fire and collect footage and all those things. They all need to be looked at."
A suspect, who is believed to have started the fire, made a brief appearance in the Cape Town Regional Court on Tuesday morning.
Tanzanian national Frederick Mhangazo was arrested on Monday.
He will make a second appearance later this month.
