Cape Town – A Noordhoek fire suspected to have been started by arsonists has caused immense damage to a farm housing rescued cats and horses.
Erin le Roux said eight of their 14 stables and feed, buckets and grooming equipment were destroyed in the blaze.
“The fire came from the property next door and we have had to relocate (the animals) to another part of the farm.
"We have 14 horses in total and we were meant to get a 15th one this week, but because of what happened we were not able to take it in.”
Le Roux said thankfully all the animals were unharmed, aside from one of their cats that got slight burns on her feet.
“But she is fine. All the animals are fine otherwise. We have about 20 feral cats that are running around.
"After the fire, we found 14 and now we are still looking for the remaining six.”
She said they were looking to rebuild the stables and the community had been very helpful, but they still had a long road ahead.
“For now we have made night camps where the horses can sleep at night and during the day they are in the bigger paddocks. We have paddocks that are still usable,” Le Roux said.
The fire broke out last week Sunday and more than 150 firefighters and three helicopters responded to the blaze.
Table Mountain National Park fire manager Philip Prins said the fires were started deliberately.
“There was one person that was apprehended at the end of the day. It was actually one of the helicopter pilots that saw what happened and he chased the guys and got hold of one of the guys, but as far as I know, there was more than one person.”
Prins said the incident was handed over to the relevant authorities and that this was not the first time a case of arson was recorded in the area.
“It’s not the first time that this has happened, especially in the Noordhoek area. We also get it in other areas, where they start fires with malicious intent.”
He said having to put fires out was an extensive and expensive task.
“The helicopters are about R34 000 per hour and that is without the ground crews and at some stage we had four helicopters that went for about six hours. So it is very expensive.
"They do a brilliant job of cooling fire down before the ground teams go in. At one stage, there were flames three to four metres high and that is too hot for firefighters.”
To assist Le Roux, email: [email protected]