MBOMBELA – Extremely hot and windy weather in the Lowveld resulted in various runaway veld fires last week. Although no human life has been lost, a rhino was engulfed by flames in the Kruger National Park (KNP).
Working on Fire (WoF) attended to a total of 18 fires that erupted across Mpumalanga on Thursday. All 24 WoF teams were deployed to get these fires under control.
Following the raging fires in KNP that lasted for over a week, South African National Parks (SANParks) confirmed that all four fires, had been contained on Friday.
A few hard-prayed-for drops of rain and a sudden drop in temperature late Friday afternoon were welcomed by firefighters. This gave them time to catch their breath, as the cold weather reduced the intensity of these fires, which made it easier to nip them in the bud. As they were hoping for, rain accompanied the cooler weather, which increased the humidity and enabled them to bring the fires under control.
Mr William Mabasa, KNP general manager of communications and marketing, all fires were fully contained on Friday. The Phabeni Gate had to be closed due to fire, but was opened as soon as it was under control.
The worst fires raged in the northern part of the park near Olifants Rest Camp and was also contained earlier that day. “One of the four fires originated in the park at Skukuza, one came from Mozambique’s side and two started in the Phabeni region. No structural damage was done,” said Mabasa.
“Heavy smoke caused inconvenience in the park, but cleared up by Sunday. No KNP personnel or firefighters were injured while on duty. However, we regret to announce that a rhino had been overcome by flames with fatal consequences. We have not yet determined whether it is a black or white rhino, nonetheless, it still remains a sad loss for the park,” said Mabasa. “On behalf of the KNP, I would like to thank everyone involved for their hard work and a job well done.”
Provincial general manager of WoF, Mr Martin Bolton said that firefighters would keep on saving the environment and preventing unnecessary loss of life.
“With the community we can maintain zero unwanted veld fire in the province.” He pleaded with people living on fire-prone areas to take extra care when making open fires. Although the humidity has increased and temperatures have dropped, a fire warning still remains active until the end of October.
“Mpumalanga WoF will continue to fight veld fires with its partners which are fire protection associations (FPAs), the Mpumalanga Tourism and Park Agency, private land owners and the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries,” said Bolton.
South Africa is one of the few countries worldwide that has a professional veld and forest fire-fighting service at its disposal. “One of the organisation’s objectives is to fight unwanted veld fires and to provide quality services in the fire-fighting industry,” Bolton concluded.
