Cape Town - Firefighters spent Thursday night battling a blaze raging on the mountain near Sir Lowry’s Pass while multiple vegetation fires had rescue crews and resources spread thin across the city.
Between dawn and 5.30pm on Thursday, the fire department had been called out to 55 vegetation fires, said City of Cape Town Fire and Rescue Services’ Theo Layne.
Layne was peaking to the Cape Argus from Sir Lowry’s Pass where he was assisting crews around 5pm on thursday. At that time he said a main concern was that the fire may spread across the mountain.
The fire, which was believed to have started around lunchtime, had spread across the veld between the N2 and the mountainous area.
The flames had consumed a large portion of a pine forest in the area and the surrounding fynbos and vegetation. Before sunset, three helicopters were water bombing the area while 120 ground crew were trying to contain the 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 confident they had sufficient vehicles.
A statement issued by Working on Fire and the South African 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 hotspots 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.
natasha.prince@inl.co.za
Cape Argus