Firefighters in Cape City on Wednesday have been battling a wildfire that broke out in Desk Mountain Nationwide Park and unfold in a single day towards town, native authorities mentioned.
The wildfire has burned for a number of days within the Newlands space, excessive within the mountainous slopes of the park, however robust gusting winds pushed it towards Cape City’s central enterprise district in a single day, fireplace and park officers mentioned.
The scale of the fireplace and the extent of any potential property harm was nonetheless being decided, mentioned Edward Bosch, a spokesman for the Cape City Fireplace and Rescue Service. However he described the blaze as “intensive.” He mentioned there was no menace to the downtown space as of Wednesday morning, however famous that might change relying on the wind and different elements all through the day.
Trails in Desk Mountain Nationwide Park, a preferred mountain climbing spot for residents and vacationers, have been closed after the fireplace started earlier this week. As of Monday, the fireplace had burned via at the least 148 acres of land, in keeping with a physique accountable for managing the nationwide park, which mentioned on Monday that it was involved about “the continued presence of hikers in areas which have been closed off.”
A second fireplace, within the Pink Hill area of the park, was additionally burning on Wednesday morning.
No evacuations had been ordered, Mr. Bosch mentioned. Two helicopters had been water-bombing the fireplace since dawn on Wednesday, he mentioned, and a 3rd helicopter was on its approach from the close by city of Stellenbosch.
“If the situations are favorable at the moment, then it needs to be underneath management by at the moment,” he mentioned.
Park officers mentioned that greater than 80 firefighters from numerous businesses had been dispatched to fight the fireplace. Operators of a cable automotive operating from Desk Mountain to the central district mentioned in a social media put up on Wednesday that it might shut till additional discover due to smoke from the wildfires.
A number of main mountain fires have burned within the Western Cape province lately. Residents of Cape City, who dwell near the mountain’s foothills, are particularly involved. Ecologists have urged nationwide park officers to conduct extra prescribed burnings of vegetation to cease uncontrollable wildfires.