KZN firefighters on standby as wildfires rage in Western, Eastern Cape
KwaZulu-Natal firefighters are on standby to assist their counterparts battling fires in parts of the country.
Working on Fire’s Linton van Rensburg says there are 15 active blazes across the Western and Eastern Cape.
They include Pearly Beach near Hermanus, where a Code Red has been declared, as well as Mossel Bay, Berg Bay and the Kouga Municipality.
In Kouga, residents in the Krom River area, near St Francis Bay, have been evacuated.
He says the situation is critical, with more than 900 firefighters and 22 aerial resources deployed across several hotspots.
" There's a high likelihood that, as we've done in the past, firefighters from KwaZulu-Natal and from other provinces will be deployed to the Western Cape to provide much-needed support to our firefighters and to municipalities on the ground."
Van Rensburg says the extreme fire danger is being driven by dry vegetation, strong winds and climate change.
" We must understand that climate change and global warming have a huge impact on our country. Not only globally, but in our country.
"Also, we've seen an extensive drought. Some of these regions in the Western Cape and the Kouga Municipality in the western part of the Eastern Cape have not had rain for some time now, and as a result, we have vegetation that is dried out."
He adds that alien invasive plants pose a significant fire risk.
Kouga Municipality Mayor, Hattingh Bornman, says while St Francis Bay is a priority, they are keeping a close eye on two other areas.
"An area of concern is outside Jeffreys Bay, where four houses were destroyed overnight. Our firefighters are on the scene there with additional water tankers and a lot of volunteer firefighters trying to get that fire under control.
"Then, north of Humansdorp, we just got a veld fire, which isn't endangering any property at this stage, but we do have some electrical infrastructure that we need to keep an eye on and make sure that additional areas don't sit without electricity. The N2 is currently closed again due to large amounts of smoke."
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