Firefighters remain on scene monitoring hotspots and preventing flare-ups after a raging vegetation fire broke out near the Steenbras Nature Reserve outside Gordon’s Bay on Tuesday 21 October.
Jermaine Carelse, spokesperson for the City of Cape Town’s Fire and Rescue Service, said firefighting crews and an incident management team were dispatched following an emergency call about vegetation alight along the R44 towards Kogel Bay around 18:00.
“Upon arrival, the crew found a large area of mountain slopes alight alongside the R44 between Gordon’s Bay and Rooi Els. The fire was inaccessible to conventional firefighting vehicles, so crews had to make their way to the scene on foot,” Carelse stated.
“With assistance from teams from the City’s Biodiversity Management branch and CapeNature, fire service crews managed to bring the fire under control during the early hours of this morning [Wednesday 22 October]. Favourable weather conditions during the night contributed significantly to firefighting efforts. Currently, crews are attending to an area of hotspots and will remain on scene to prevent flare-ups.”
With fire season drawing near, JP Smith, Mayoral Committee member for Safety and Security, previously warned that the metropole is more prone to vegetations fires during the warmer months, and that this is why the City constantly invests in the Fire and Rescue Service.
“On any typical day, each of our 32 fire stations has a fire engine with a full crew, ready to go. In addition, we will have another 12 water tankers, ready to assist these tankers on large scale fires, where a backup water source cannot be guaranteed. Along with these, we have various off-road, lighter 4×4 vehicles making up numerous strike teams to quickly transverse the rough terrain of such vegetation fires.
“With enough fire engines, water tankers, specialised aerial platforms and rescue vehicles, and our recent investment that saw us expand our firefighting crews even further, we must remain alert and always ready to handle any situation,” Smith said.
