MARIETTE LE ROUX, Skukuza | Thursday
FIFTEEN of the 19 people killed in Tuesday night’s veld fire in the Kruger National Park (KNP) could have survived if they remained in their camp instead of fleeing, officials said on Wednesday.
”It appears that those who died tried to run from the fire, but the flames caught up with them. The wind was much faster than human legs can go,” parks director David Mabunda told reporters in Skukuza.
People who stayed put were unharmed. The 15 were members of neighbouring communities contracted to cut grass. Eleven people were initially injured but one, a field ranger, later died in a Nelspruit hospital.
The other three victims were also field rangers who had been brought into the fight the flames.
Nelspruit Medi-Clinic representative Gugulethu Ngwenya said on Wednesday night the hospital was treating two women and a man. They had suffered 50 to 100% burn wounds to their bodies.
The Rob Ferreira Hospital said it had discharged several patients on Tuesday night and was still treating two.
A representative for the Matikwana Hospital in Mkuhlu outside Skukuza said either one or two people were being treated, but could not comment the severity of the injuries suffered.
SA National Parks (SANParks) board chairman Mavuso Msimang said the fire started on Tuesday evening when windy conditions made it difficult to contain the flames. It raged between Pretoriuskop and Skukuza.
The 15 contract workers were staying in a camp at the edge of the area destroyed by the fire, Mabunda said.
”It is difficult to re-enact what happened, but it appears that the people were scared and terrified when they saw the flames coming towards them. That is probably is why they ran.”
The 15 died from suffocation and burn wounds and some were burnt beyond recognition.
A number of animals, including four elephants were also killed, in the blaze which destroyed 70 000 hectares of vegetation.
The Napi Trail camp was burnt to the ground, including tents containing the property of eight tourists who were evacuated unharmed.
Mabunda said officials had done everything possible to contain the fire.
”Even if we were to call upon all the municipal fire fighters available in Mpumalanga and the Northern Province, we would not have succeeded in dousing the flames,” he said.
”That was the magnitude of the fire.”
Two fire engines and an aircraft were deployed to assist, as well soldiers from a nearby military base.
”We had enough people fighting the fire and did everything by the book,” Mabunda said.
MWU-Solidarity, one of the two labour unions at the KNP, also conveyed its condolences but said the blaze could have been prevented. Representative Dirk Hermann said rangers warned last year that the fire-breaks needed to be cleaned up. ”The park, however, decided to retrench these rangers which resulted in a lack of expertise in fire-fighting.” Meanwhile, six children and one adult burned to death in a bush fire in South Africa’s eastern KwaZulu-Natal province. Police representative Bala Naidoo said the fire at Majuba Pass near Charlestown in the northwest of the province broke out in the late afternoon and raged out of control. – Sapa, AFP