Emergency services and community fought devastating fires well into the night

Yesterday, the communities of Krugersdorp, Muldersdrift and surrounding areas were fighting dangerous and costly veld fires.

According to a statement from Working on Fire (WoF), three of their teams fought five veld fires in Mogale City until the late hours of the night of Monday, 21 October.

Stephen Boyes, the General Manager for the WOF programme in Gauteng, said that the dry, hot and windy weather made firefighting difficult for the teams, and the heatwave contributed to making things worse.

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The Cradle of Humankind and Krugersdorp WoF teams fought fires in Noordheuwel, Tarlton, Sterkfontein and the Kromdraai and Swartkrans areas.

“An estimated 1 500 hectares were burned,” their statement said. “But our firefighters were up to the task because of the nature of the training they received,” Boyes added.

He has urged landowners to remain vigilant because the fire season is not over yet. He explained that until the province receives sufficient rain, the season is not over.

During the fires, farming equipment and properties were burnt and grazing land was destroyed, but luckily no life was lost.

“These firefighters were able to minimise the damage that the fires could have caused,” Boyles explained.

Sadly, the Muldersdrift News and Info group on Facebook has seen post after post about fires sweeping through the area, one being in Swartkrans, where the fire burned farms on the border with Magaliesburg and into Swartkrans.

“The Magalies Fire Protection Association (FPA) and the community from as far afield as Hekpoort arrived to assist the farmers. Sadly, some game and a calf were lost in this one section,” the Facebook post explained.

The post went on to say the incident showed how brilliantly the FPA groups, Conserv Security and the community worked together.

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A fire near the Owl Rescue Centre threatened the lives of their animals, but luckily, according their Facebook post, the animals are all safe.

“Fire is under control. We have a brilliant community here that helps out in emergencies and the local firefighting department has been excellent. All owls and otters are safe,” said their post.

On the evening of Sunday, 20 October, the emergency services were also called to a raging veld fire near the Dr Yusuf Dadoo Hospital, according to an eyewitness. A woman on scene said that patients were moved outside as the fire was burning against one of the back buildings.

Boyes said that their teams will remain on standby until the fire season is over. The danger index remains high because of the lack of rain and the West Rand is a known hot spot for this type of fires.

“Every year, we record high numbers of fires in area,” he said, adding that fire awareness education was extremely important for the communities in the area.

https://www.facebook.com/OwlRescueCentre/videos/2429880013793732/