Fires that have killed two people and ravaged large areas of land have largely been contained, but now the provinces are starting to count the costs.
Chris Austin, the national ground-operations manager of Working on Fire (WOF), said on Tuesday that crews from the Western Cape, Eastern Cape, Gauteng, Free State, Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo have been fighting fires since September 23.
”The crews have been operational for 120 hours, with crews only take brief rest and food breaks,” he said.
A statement from WOF said hundreds of families’ homes were razed across the provinces.
Six-year-old Bonakele Ngema burnt to death in a house where she was trapped by a fire in Mntanenkosi reserve, KwaZulu-Natal, and in Limpopo, a 53-year-old farmer was killed when his helicopter crashed as he was assessing a blaze.
Danger of flare-ups
But while most of the fires have been contained, the hot, dry and windy conditions could cause more flare-ups in many parts of the country.
WOF said a new fire was reported in the Warburton area in Mpumalanga in Tuesday.
The Mac Mac fire has largely been contained.
The Hebron fire has flared up again and a spotter plane and helicopter are on the scene to assist crews struggling to get to the fire, which is high up. The fire, however, is still contained.
In KwaZulu-Natal, all the fires in the region have been contained, with no new fires reported in the past 12 hours.
Crews from WOF are assisting in mopping-up operations.
Austin said all fires in northern KwaZulu-Natal have been contained.
Monday night saw extremely windy conditions in the Free State, and a new fire has been reported 20km south of Rosendal in the Ficksburg direction. Four WOF crews have been dispatched to help fight the fire.
All other fires in the province have been contained, said Austin.
In Gauteng, the Cullinan WOF crews were involved in fighting four fires on Monday night.
Austin said that no new fires have been reported in Limpopo province in the past 12 hours.
Free State hard hit
The general manager of Agri Free State, Pieter Moller, said large parts of the province have experienced fires.
He said in the Boshoff and Hertzogville areas in the western Free State alone, 15 000ha of vegetation has been destroyed by the fires.
”The economy of the whole province has been hard hit. Everyone has been affected — farmers, farm workers, inhabitants in rural areas — everyone,” he said. ”The costs of this fire are going to run into millions of rands.”
Moller said Agri Free State is doing a survey to try to put a number on the damage caused.
Once this has been done, the organisation will approach the provincial government about declaring a disaster in the area.
Jane Ferguson, of the KwaZulu-Natal Cane-Growers’ Association, said most of the damage to sugar-cane crops in the province was in the area north-west of Empangeni.
She said it will cost some farmers about R500 a hectare to repair the crops.
”Most of the crops can still be delivered, but the quality will have dropped, so they will lose revenue there,” she said.
Surveys to count the costs
Willie Auret, the president of Agri North West, said he has sent out SMSs for feedback on total damage in province.
”In Potchefstroom, we had reports that about 50 000ha of grasslands were destroyed. There was also a fairly serious fire in Schweizer-Reneke. We are doing a survey to count the costs,” he said.
He said in Schweizer-Reneke there was no damage to stock, but it was a different situation in Potchefstroom.
The Mpumalanga and Western Cape agricultural boards are also counting the costs of the fires.
Provincial government officials visited the Pilanesberg National Park in North West on Tuesday morning after a fire destroyed 5 000ha to 6 000ha of vegetation.
Three elephants — aged two, seven and 15 — had to be destroyed after they were caught in a fire at the park. — Sapa