The fire which broke out on Friday on the back slopes of Table Mountain is still raging out of control and has damaged buildings in a youth camp.
Cape Town fire control officer Mark Bosch said the fire was now burning on two fronts.
One group of firefighters were protecting the upmarket Oudekraal Hotel near the coastline, ”so at this moment there is no danger for it”, and the rest of the crews were further up the mountain trying to stop the fire.
There had been reports that the south easter, which is driving the flames, was reaching 45kph at times, he said.
Table Mountain National Park spokesperson Fiona Kalk said the fire had reached Apostle Battery, a former military establishment now used by the park for youth groups.
Some buildings were on fire, and helicopters were water-bombing the property, which is surrounded by gum trees.
No youth groups had been at the site, and a caretaker and two workers had been taken to safety.
The fire was now heading towards Suikerbossie, a hill above Hout Bay, where firefighters hoped to contain it.
She said most of the land that had burned in the fire so far was private land, and that the vegetation there was old fynbos. Fire was, ecologically speaking, a natural part of the fynbos life cycle.
A witness, who telephoned the South African Press Association before dawn to report the fire, said at that stage he could see cars of alarmed residents ”streaming” out of the suburb of Llandudno, towards Camps Bay and Bantry Bay.
The witness said the fire’s glow was ”lighting up the whole horizon”.
Police confirmed that a 30-year-old mother, her 13-year-old son and 26-year-old brother died when their shack burnt down in Makhaza, Khayelitsha, just before 3am on Friday.
Western Cape police spokesperson Capt Randall Stoffels said the cause of the fire was unknown and that Khayelitsha police officers had opened an inquest docket.
The names of the deceased would be released as soon as their next kin were informed. – Sapa