When the fire tore through Mossel Bays Aalwyndal last week, singer and songwriter Hazel Stone had only minutes to decide what could be saved from a life built over more than three decades.
As smoke closed in, Stone fled with little more than her childrens holiday suitcase, her fiancs work clothes, a laptop containing 32 years of music, her microphone and her wedding ring. An asthma attack forced her to stop as the fire moved closer.
The blaze was among a series of fires that swept through parts of the Western Cape, affecting communities across the socio-economic divide.
