Wildfires rage in four provinces

2005-09-25 20:28

Johannesburg -Wildfires were raging in four provinces, a public-private firefighters organisation said on Sunday night.

Fifteen fires were raging in the Richards Bay and St Lucia areas in KwaZulu-Natal.

Firefighters battled 20 fires in the same area on Saturday, many caused by lightening strikes.

"They have been operating at full strength for 28 hours straight," Working on Fire (WOF) spokeswoman Val Charlton said.

Elsewhere, 10 fires are now burning in the Nelspruit (Mpumalanga) dispatch area, three in other parts of Mpumalanga and two at Tzaneen (Limpopo). One fire has been contained.

The Rosendal fire in the Free State continued to burn along an extremely long front, Charlton said.

A plus was the weather was starting to cool and the wind had dropped considerably.

There was also no immediate danger to property.

"The fire will continue to be brought under control during the night. Notable in this area was the lack of landowner preparedness. No firebreaks were in place. Experienced firefighters feel that, had firebreaks been prepared, this would have helped in halting the fire earlier. Fire suppression costs have not yet been totalled, but it is expected that they will be considerable, given the aerial and ground resources deployed over the period," Charlton added.

Earlier in the day, 24 22-strong teams were in the field.

WOF national operations manager said relief crews were being mobilised in the Eastern and Southern Cape.

WOF s a partnership between the Department of Water and Forestry, the Department of Provincial Government's National Disaster Management Unit and commercial forestry partners.

Together with aerial firefighting resources, forty 22-person firefighting crews have been trained as a co-ordinated national disaster firefighting resource that is shared across the fire-prone regions of South Africa.

The firefighters were previously unemployed and recruited under government's Expanded Public Works Programme.

- SAPA