Cape Town – Firefighting teams are monitoring the scene of a contained fire in the mountains near Wolseley, with concern that the evening breeze combined with the hot weather could result in flare-ups.
The Cape Winelands District Municipality’s (CWDM) fire services and partners, CapeNature and PMDC confirmed that the fire in the mountains above Boontjieskraal Road just off the R46 outside Wolseley, had been contained by Monday afternoon.
“The CWDM deployed choppers ‘Tango’ and ‘Whiskey’ during the latter stages of this morning to increase the incidence of water bombs, which aided ground teams in containing the fire,” spokesperson Jo-Anne Otto said.
“Although the fire is contained there is concern that the evening breeze combined with the hot weather might result in flare-ups.
“Ground teams will, however, remain vigilant in their monitoring during the mopping-up operations for the next 24 hours,” Otto said.
The fire was reported at midnight on Sunday. The cause of the blaze is unknown.
Authorities earlier on Monday said the veld in which the fire started is about 15- years old and ordinarily, it would be left to burn so that the indigenous fire-driven ecology can follow its natural course, but there were several concerns.
“These include the fire’s proximity to Eskom power lines, nature reserves and agricultural land. Fire teams will focus their energies on diverting the fire line away from the Eskom lines, and turning the fire towards Ceres so that it burns into an area where it can burn itself out,” Otto said.
Cape Times