About 250 000ha of bush have been razed by fires that have been burning in the Pilanesberg area of the North West for the past six days, Working on Fire (WOF) said on Thursday.
More than 120 local farmers, farm workers and residents and eight fire engines from nearby towns were fighting the fire, said WOF’s Evelyn John Holtzhausen.
Teams of wild-fire fighters from Gauteng, trained by WOF, had been called to help. WOF had dispatched a spotter aircraft to direct fire fighters from the air. A command centre would also be set up to coordinate fire-fighting teams in the area.
Sixteen young elephants were burnt in a veld fire that swept through the Pilanesberg National Park in September 2005. Four elephants had to be put down because of the severity of their injuries. About 6 000ha were destroyed in that fire.
WOF is a government job-creation programme that trains and deploys wild-fire fighters nationally. — Sapa