Environment Writer
THE risk of fire on the peninsula was still high as the veld was tinder dry and weather forecasts indicated little more than a sprinkling of rain in the next 10 days.
This warning comes from Working on Fire spokesman Linton Rensburg, who said yesterday this fire season had been one of the most difficult in many years.
“There were a total of 294 fires in the Western Cape since December 1, which burnt a total of 29 000 hectares. It was tough.”
Rensburg said the additional 250 Working on Fire firefighters, who had come to assist in the Cape from other provinces, had now left.
“But all the aerial resources are still here because the fire risk is still high. That’s 10 helicopters, six fixed-wings and a spotter aircraft. It is still very dry and it looks as if April will stay that way,” Rensburg said.
During March there were a total of 27 firefighting aircraft in the province.
Rensburg said Working on Fire had 900 firefighters permanently deployed in the Western Cape.
Guy Preston, a deputy director in the Department of Environmental Affairs, which leads the Working on Fire programme, echoed the warning. He said Cape Town residents, particularly those who lived close to sections of the Table Mountain National Park that had burnt in the fires during the first week in March, might think the fire risk was low because so much of the veld had already been destroyed.
“But the fire risk is still great, even now at what is regarded as the end of the fire season in the Cape. We have had very little rain since the fires – 9mm in Hout Bay – and the veld is tinder dry. There is no significant rain forecast, so don’t think the danger is over,” Preston said.
The fire that started on March 1 in the mountains above Muizenberg burnt for five days, sweeping across the Peninsula to Hout Bay, and destroyed 5 120ha of land. However, Table Mountain National Park staff manage 25 000ha of land, which means there is still a lot of unburnt veld on the peninsula.
Preston said an additional problem was alien vegetation on the urban fringe. As long as this existed, it would add significantly to the fire risk.
“If we are to fireproof the mountain, we need to take control of the invasive aliens. These burn with an intensity 10 times greater than the indigenous fynbos.”
While some landowners had cleared invasive aliens, there were still many who had not.
Regulations published by the department in October put a legal obligation on landowners in certain areas to clear alien invasive vegetation.
The hotline to report fires is 086 110 6417.