South Peninsula residents urged to be cautious amid vegetation fire

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Cape Town firefighters are still battling flare-ups of a vegetation fire that has been ranging since Tuesday in the vicinity of Simon’s Town and Glencairn in the South Peninsula. Cape Town Fire and Rescue Services spokesperson, Jermaine Carelse says a helicopter is waterbombing the inaccessible areas.

He says over 35 fire-fighting resources are on the scene.

“On the Simon’s Town front we currently have flare-ups at Partridge Point and Smitswinkel, where crews are actively busy with fire-fighting and where one Oryx helicopter is water bombing the inaccessible areas. As we move towards Glencairn Expressway, there are still flare-ups along the road. Two Hueys are water-bombing that area with crews dealing with flare-ups. The public should know that we will stay on site until the last ember is extinguished.”

The City of Cape Town has urged the public to be extremely cautious when working with any kind of fire or lit objects such as cigarettes during the hot and dry fire season.

Cape Town Mayoral Committe Member for Safety and Security, JP Smith, has urged the public to be responsible and not leave fires unattended or start fires places where its not appropriate.

“As the wind increases and if we don’t have rain for a while, the vegetation dries out. And all you need is one irresponsible act by a person because all fires start from the activity of humans and then you have this kind of chaos. We are lucky there’s no lives lost and no damage to property but we won’t always be lucky. We shouldn’t need luck. We should always rely on everybody being responsible and doing the responsible thing.”

Vigilance urged as mountain fires persist in Cape Town:

Endangered animals

The Cape of Good Hope SPCA says rescue efforts are under way for the endangered animals. Spokesperson for the SPCA, Belinda Abraham says their rescue mission is facing challenges as the fire keeps flaring up.

“And our search party is still in the field searching for endangered animals. Search conditions are challenging. There’s small flare-ups occurring around them. The ground is really hard, and seemingly the soil on the ground is quickly giving foot. The loss of life has been devastating to see. We’ve come across the charred and burnt remains of many animals who have either succumbed to the smoke or the flames. Fortunately, we’ve had some survivors as well.”