/ 2 November 2005

Eastern Cape fires under control

A number of fires in the Humansdorp area of the Eastern Cape were extinguished by 8.15pm on Tuesday, fire-department official Andrew Pietersen said.

”The Jeffrey’s Bay fire and the St Francis fire have been extinguished,” he said.

Earlier, he said fires were ”jumping from one place to another”.

However, the fire that had burnt thousands of hectares of farm, forest and fynbos was still visible in the mountains.

”It is not as bad as it was,” he said. ”We are just trying to stop it reaching farmland now.”

Earlier in the day, Working on Fire (WoF) spokesperson Val Charlton said 154 WoF firefighters were tackling blazes and helping local firefighters protect livestock and properties in the Eastern and Western Cape, where nine veld and forest fires were burning unabated.

There were other fires reported in the Western Cape.

WoF ground operations manager Chris Austin said an 80% chance of rain was forecast for Wednesday, with a cold front moving closer to Cape Town. — Sapa