Lowveld ablaze
2003-08-26 18:07
Sizwe samaYende
Nelspruit - Five fires blazed uncontrollably across the Lowveld on Tuesday afternoon covering the region in dense smoke and ash.
The Lowveld and Escarpment Fire Protection Association (Lefpa) announced that new fires had broken out at Maritzkop, Graskop, Mariti, Kaapschehoop and Amsterdam.
Association spokesperson Chris Austin said the fires were out of control but firefighters were doing their best.
"All the fires are difficult to control at the moment; they're burning timber plantations and agricultural land," Austin said.
NCT Forests regional manager Vaughen Lascelles said the Kaapschehoop fire consumed more than 1 000ha of land, forcing people to evacuate their homes which were at risk of being burnt down.
Fires have been raging across the province since Tuesday last week when forestry plantations and farmland in the Thaba Chweu (Lydenburg) and Mbombela (Nelspruit) municipal areas were engulfed. Some 30 000ha of land were ravaged at an estimated cost of R100m.
Thaba Chweu lost entire swaths of its crucial forestry sector around Wilgeboom near Graskop, Hendriksdal and Brondal near Sabie. Two sawmills were destroyed in the blaze, and large amounts of plantation equipment ranging from hand tools to vehicles were also destroyed.
Damage around the capital, Nelspruit, was largely confined to commercial nut and citrus orchards in Cairn, Uplands, White River Estates and Alkmaar.
Provincial and local government minister Sydney Mufamadi has declared the Lowveld a disaster zone, but government authorities are awaiting comprehensive damage assessments before announcing relief measures.
Emergency teams are meanwhile handing out tents, food and blankets to affected families, consisting largely of forestry labourers and farm tenants.
Conservationists and insurance experts have already warned that the damage could be more than meets the eye to small-scale forestry owners and farmers.
"Exotic trees like pine and wattle burn much hotter than indigenous plants, causing much more damage to roots systems and scorching the soil far worse than natural fires. This means that rehabilitation takes a lot longer, posing a greater erosion damage if we get rains any time soon," explains regional Working for Water manager Quinton Pretorius.
Agricultural insurance expert, Kobus Massyn, of Glenrand MIB Agri Risk Management Services said that most small-scale farmers couldn't afford to insure their properties.
"Most farmers only insure part of their properties, because insuring everything would cost a fortune. Also, many emerging farmers do not insure anything, because they cannot afford to," Massyn said.
"Affected farmers will therefore only get compensation for part of their losses, and will have to slave for years to recover their true losses."
Lascelles however warned that most of the small forestry farmers were uninsured.
The region's largest agricultural union, Agri-SA Mpumalanga, is helping farmers complete their insurance and damage assessment paperwork.
Mpumalanga's local government spokesperson Simphiwe Kunene said that more than 1 000 firefighters were deployed on the scenes.
"The department is also organising more helicopters to boost the fight," Kunene said.
The Lowveld fire has so far claimed just one life - a still unnamed firefighter who was run-over by a truck while working in dense smoke last week.
In the Highveld, a Witbank farmer and his wife died on Monday while helping neighbours to fight a fire.
Kallie Klopper, 50, and his 40-year-old wife, Leonie, were engulfed in flames and died.
- African Eye