Rouan Snyman of the Letaba Fire Protection Association (LFPA) said that on Monday, September 11, the fire danger index (FDI) for the LFPA area was a 71 orange. “If you compare it to the FDI sheet, it was just short of a red day (extremely dangerous) and still people made fires. This had massive consequences and had the entire area in a panic,” he told the Herald. He said there is a prohibition on fires from August 1 to October 31.

“Some residents who disobeyed this prohibition and burned vegetation on Monday caused a fire hazard spreading to a bigger space in Agatha, behind New Industria, through the municipal property towards Bosveld Hunters Association,” he said. “People are unfamiliar with the FDI and disobey the rules set forth from the LFPA for this area. Due to vegetation, topography, the weather and population in our area, the risk of uncontrolled fires is very high.”

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He said there are landowners that do not make fire breaks or abide by the rules for the area. “They have no firefighting equipment nor training and think that hot windy days are a good time to burn unwanted vegetation or rubbish pits,” Snyman said. According to him a Telegram group created a few years ago to keep residents and landowners informed on controlled, uncontrolled fires as well as rain statistics, works well.

“We urge everyone to join this group and report on fires and rainfall.” Snyman said the LFPA has long term plans to implement a special burning permit system for agricultural land preparation, conservation and sawmill waste burns during certain times of the year. According to him the Tzaneen and Modjadjiskloof fire departments are stretched beyond their capabilities to accommodate all these fire requests and the LFPA assists them where they can.

“We still have two months left for the high fire danger time and with weather conditions that change on a weekly basis, we urge residents not to make fires until the proper rain season and some significant rain has fallen, 50mm – 100mm across the whole of the LFPA area,” Snyman concluded. Email the LFPA at admin@ letabafire.co.za, or go to their website www.letabafire.co.za for more information.