Cape Town - Cape firefighters were battling two blazes over the weekend, soon after the Table Mountain National Parks (TMNP) reported a surge in fires during the November and early December period.
On Sunday, over 100 firefighters from TMNP, NCC Wildfires, Volunteer Wildfire Services, Working on Fire teams and pilots including City Fire and Rescue Services responded to a fire above Molteno Road, Deer Park.
Tafelberg Road was closed at around 2pm and the fire was contained at around 3:38pm. Fire and Rescue Service spokesperson Jermaine Carelse said just after 1pm, services were alerted to a vegetation fire in the vicinity of Deer Park Drive.
“Resources were dispatched to the scene and found a large area of vegetation alight along the lower slopes of Tafelberg Road and Deer Park Drive,” Carelse said. The on-scene Officer in Charge requested additional resources to contain the blaze.
Twelve firefighting resources and over 40 firefighters from the City were on scene, he said. Two choppers were water-bombing inaccessible areas with a third chopper on its way.
On Saturday, firefighters were deployed to a fire on Signal Hill, below Military Road.
Carelse said the emergency was reported shortly after 12pm and that fire crews and teams from TMNP managed to contain and extinguish the fire by 2pm.
On Friday, TMNP said it experienced a surge in fire incidents with 34 fires responded to from November 1 to December 8. TMNP called the occurrence an alarming trend, with a concentration of incidents primarily within the Signal Hill area- making it a current hot spot.
Ninety-seven percent of fires were contained within the first 90 minutes of deployment. “However, an unsettling trend arises regarding the cause of these fires, as the majority are attributed to vagrants,” SANParks said in a statement released.
SANParks Regional Communications Manager-Cape Region Lauren Howard-Clayton said Saturday’s blaze near Signal Hill primarily occurred outside the TMNP boundary, originating below Military Road.
The City’s Fire and Rescue Services along with TMNP responded by deploying ground crews and water tankers. No additional fires were reported afterward.
“Routine patrols and monitoring are conducted in identified high-risk areas whenever specific patterns or trends are detected.”