Cape of Flames: 100 fires a day

Published Jan 9, 2015

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Cape Town - Cape Town has been scorched this festive season with an average of more than 100 vegetation fires flaring up almost every day, almost three times the number of fires compared to last year.

City fire services revealed on Friday morning that there have been 4 338 vegetation fires between December 1 and January 4.

During the same period last year firefighters were called out to fewer than 1 600.

The number was revealed against the backdrop of two separate blazes that were still burning in the city and near Grabouw on Friday morning.

At 2am, a fire had sparked into life on the mountain-side slopes of De Waal Drive. City fire services spokesman Theo Layne said the road had to be closed to allow fire trucks to park on the road and douse the flames.

While the fire was close to houses, just on the other side of the road, Layne said there had been no danger of the flames spilling over. The fire was quickly contained.

“We will have a crew on the scene if there are any hot spots that we can’t see in case they are reignited by the wind.”

By comparison, a fire high in the mountains near Sir Lowry’s Pass has been a headache for firefighters, flaring up again on Thursday afternoon. The blaze was still roaring on Friday morning with two helicopters bombing the flames with buckets of water.

Layne expected the fire to rage on for at least another day, with teams most likely working through the night until Saturday to douse the flames.

He said only a few parts of the fire were accessible to ground crews.

“If the fire went left unchecked it could quickly make its way to the nearby residential areas.”

But he said teams would remain until the last hot spot had been stamped out.

While the cause of both fires is still unknown, Layne said there seemed to be no shortage of dry vegetation in Cape Town at the moment.

He urged people to be careful when working with open flames.

Earlier on Thursday, firefighters were sent to contain a large vegetation fire that broke out on Signal Hill.

A helicopter was used to water bomb the blaze while ground-based firefighters managed to contain the fire in 90 minutes, Layne said. No property was reported to be in danger and no injuries were reported. By late afternoon a vehicle was monitoring the area.

Layne said they had resources deployed across the city, including Khayelitsha, Belhar, Bridgetown, Philippi, Richwood, Blouberg and Table View.

“We were in almost every area of the city,” Layne said, adding crews were stretched thin, but he was confide nt they had sufficient vehicles.

A statement issued by Working on Fire and the SA National Parks (SANParks) said adverse weather conditions, including strong winds and high temperatures, had seen the early arrival of the fire season and millions of rand had already been spent on veld fires since October.

Shane Christians, general manager for Working on Fire in the Western Cape, said the fire season had started much earlier than usual and that crews had been “actively fighting fires for much longer than originally planned”.

For the Table Mountain area covered by SANParks, 32 fires had been reported between November and December - 19 more than the number of fires in the same period in 2013.

Phillip Prince, fire manager at SANParks, said they had their hands full.

“Gale-force southerly winds have complicated the extinguishing of severe wildfires, coupled with inaccessible terrain as well as the presence of alien vegetation.”

He said among the most severe fires reported were those close to the urban edge at residential areas including Noordhoek, Twelve Apostles, and tourist hot spots including Vakansieplaas in Mossel Bay and Stormsvlei in the southern Cape.

Layne encouraged people to report fires immediately. “Don't assume someone else will report it, rather call it in.”

He said most veld fires were caused by children or malicious adults, adding that people needed to be careful when cooking and heating things near open veld.

* To report a fire, call 107 from a landline or 021 480 7700 from a cellphone.

Cape Argus

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