Nine homesteads were destroyed and four people injured as runaway veld fires swept through the Harrismith and Van Reenen’s Pass area on Monday, the Emnambithi/Ladysmith municipality said.
Superintendent Bennie Strydom, of the municipality’s public safety department, said the wind reached speeds of more than 100km/h in the morning but had dropped and turned by the evening.
Superintendent Fred Halgreen said there were flames but that the wind had died down.
Firefighters were still fighting the fires shortly before 8pm. ”They are busy winning it as it’s going,” he said.
The fire raged through the Van Reenen village where nine huts were burned down.
Some residents had to run for their lives, South African Broadcasting Corporation radio news reported.
The fires forced the closure of the N3 highway near Harrismith and left hundreds of cattle dead. The highway was reopened later in the day.
The fires and poor visibility were worst in the Swinburne and Montrose areas near Van Reenen’s Pass.
A bed-and-breakfast owner at Van Reenen’s Pass said: ”This was hell on earth, what we experienced today. It was literally hell.”’ She described the experience as being like ”in a ball of fire” and that the flames were intense. ”You could not see,” she said.
She had abandoned her car. ”When I saw that fire, I realised that we were in great danger.” — Sapa