Kouga municipality executive mayor Booi Koerat said affected property owners would be contacted and advised as to procedures they would need to follow to obtain demolition orders for structures damaged beyond repair.

"As a council, we would like to make it as easy as possible for owners to address the damage to their properties," he said.

Koerat said it was the responsibility of each property owner to contact their insurers to arrange for a structural engineer's report on damaged buildings. Damage is expected to run into hundreds of millions of rands.

"A structural engineer's report must then be attached to a formal demolition application, signed by the owner of the property and then submitted to our senior building inspector, Trevor de Groot, at our St Francis Bay office.

"The municipality will issue demolition orders based on structural engineers' reports," he said.

Forensic police are still investigating the cause of the fire.