Cape Town - Residents in the province have been warned to brace for cold and wet weather, as fire and rescue services were kept busy on Monday battling fires flamed by strong winds.
City’s Fire and Rescue Services spokesperson Jermaine Carelse said one person was killed and three firefighters injured when numerous wooden structures were reported alight at Olieboom Road, Philippi at around 10pm Sunday.
“The response included 17 fire fighting vehicles and 72 fire fighters as the conditions were not favourable, it took firefighters nine hours to extinguish the fire. Approximately 200 informal dwellings were destroyed leaving numerous persons displaced.
“Sadly there was also one fatality that of a person of an unknown age and gender, three firefighters were injured during the fire fighting and one was taken to hospital. The cause of the fire is unknown at this stage,” said Carelse.
Police spokesperson Joseph Swartbooi said relief organisations were on the scene in a bid to assist the families directly affected by the fire.
“Once the scene has been cleared, Philippi police will be in a position to assess the damage caused, flanked by their integrated partners,” said Swartbooi.
George Municipality spokesperson Chantèl Edwards-Klose said strong winds kept municipal departments busy on Monday with veld fires attended to and put out in Victoria Bay, Hoekwil, Thembalethu and the York Street Cemetery. Currently the landfill site fire which started last night has been extinguished but continues to smoulder. A second veld fire in Hoekwil was reported around 2pm yesterday and a fire on the R102 was being attended to.
Strong winds caused several high voltage power outages with Herold’s Bay, Oubaai, the Airport Line and sections of Pacaltsdorp affected.
This as the latest forecast by the South African Weather Services (SAWS) indicates the cold front will bring rain over the south western parts of the province and is expected to spread along the south coast by Wednesday, clearing by the afternoon.
Local Government MEC Anton Bredell said the cold front is expected to be followed up by a second cold front, set to make landfall on Friday morning.
“The cold, wet weather is coming and we are urging people to prepare. The bulk of the winter is still lying ahead of us and we need to be prepared to deal with the conditions as best we can.”
According to the SAWS light snowfall can be expected over the mountainous regions of the south western parts of the Western Cape and the wind is expected to reach strong to near gale (40 to 60km/h) conditions into Tuesday.