More than 100 firefighters worked through the night to control two raging veld fires in the Southern Cape and Klein Karoo, Eden municipality disaster management said on Friday.
”Both fires are still out of control,” said Gerhard Otto.
The fires started on Thursday in Stilbaai in the Southern Cape and between Uniondale and Avontuur in the Klein Karoo.
”They worked through the day, through the night and into today [Friday],” he said.
At about 2pm on Friday, Otto said, the two fires had each left a trial of destruction about 28km long.
On Thursday night, a cottage was destroyed in Stilbaai and an adjacent house’s reed roof went up in flames.
Otto said he had sent food parcels and supplies to the residents of the cottage. No other injuries or property were damaged.
He said 62 firefighters; Working on Fire and Mountain to Ocean teams; and personnel from local municipalities had been sent to Stilbaai to prevent houses and dwellings being burnt down, while 52 firefighters were sent to Uniondale.
No houses were destroyed in the Klein Karoo area, but the fire had ravaged fencing and grazing veld.
”The weather is not making it any easier. The very hot and windy conditions are making firefighting extremely difficult,” he said.
The origins of the fires were not known but were being investigated, Otto said. — Sapa