Firefighters entered their 10th day on Tuesday evening fighting a blaze in the Franschhoek mountains above Dewdale farm.
Danie Wilds, fire chief of Cape Winelands district municipality, said crews were still battling the same hot spots that have been their nemeses for the past couple of days.
”We are making good progress. The area that is burning is smaller, as is the fire line which at one stage was a couple of kilometres but is now a few hundred metres,” he said.
Wilds said two teams would monitor the line during the night.
Crews were battling constant flare-ups. Fortunately no lines or property were in immediate danger. There was ”a lot less smoke” in the air, but firefighting conditions remained difficult.
A strong south-easter, which according to the weather service was gusting at between 40kph and 50kph, was hampering efforts to quell the fire. The wind was expected to abate by Friday.
Three helicopters used to water-bomb the fire earlier in the day had stood down and were on stand-by for Wednesday.
Exhausted fire crews also had to contend with other smaller fires, notably at Rawsonville and Simonsberg, Wilds said. — Sapa