Firefighters have contained the blaze that has raged out of control in the Table Mountain National Park since Thursday night. It was contained late on Friday afternoon, said the park’s fire manager, Philip Prins.
He said about 100 firefighters were still on the fire line and would remain there throughout the night. They would be relieved in the morning.
Fire crews would stay on the scene until at least Monday or Tuesday.
About 1 000ha on the west side of Cape Point was affected, from Link Road to past Jagersberg at the entrance to the Cape Point Nature Reserve.
Prins said park authorities did an annual, controlled burn on Tuesday to bring down the fynbos age classes, with fynbos of 15 to 20 years old and more in the area.
However, the fire got out of control on Thursday night when a gale-force south-easter picked up, with winds of 60km/h to 65km/h.
”We just couldn’t stop it … There were just coals everywhere,” he said. ”When a south-easter blows here, it really blows.”
However, from an ecological point of view there was ”no damage as such”, as the area which burnt was all old veld up for controlled burning next year and the year after that.
Prins said the fire was still a couple of kilometres from the residential area of Scarborough when it was contained. The area had not been in any danger, though, as the south-easter had been pushing the flames more towards the sea.
He said three big helicopters and a small chopper had worked on and off the whole day to douse the flames.
There had also been many firefighters from South African National Parks, assisted by the City of Cape Town fire and emergency services, Working on Fire and the city’s bulk water supply — which put on several tankers.
”Most of the work is not for vehicles; we need people on foot,” he said.
Prins said park authorities had immediately called on the city service for help when it realised the fire was out of hand.
Cape Town Disaster Risk-Management Centre spokesperson Johan Minnie said firefighters were using portable sprayers and bush beaters to extinguish the blaze.
He said Friday had been classified a red fire-danger day — when there was extreme danger of fires spreading — with high temperatures, strong wind and no rain in a while. — Sapa