Elephant Hills Estate – a disaster waiting to happen says expert
Both Fire Ops and a lightning safety expert familiar with the estate say putting tiles on top of thatch roofs was dangerous and led to extensive damage after a unit was hit.
When a unit at the Northcliff Elephant Hills Estate burst into flames following a lightning strike recently, there has been speculation as to how it happened.
Helmut Kanwischer is managing director for HHK Earthing and Lightning Protection Services and is familiar with the estate.
“During 2016, we upgraded all lightning masts for various thatched units at the estate after the annual maintenance test was conducted as required by SANS standards.”
He says they were then approached by estate management in 2021 to remove all lightning conductors as they had opted for the installation of roof tiles to be placed on top of the thatch.
“It is most unfortunate that a unit was struck by lightning but the installation of roof tiles covering the thatch was done against our recommendations and those of other parties involved who also had great concern against this concept but were overruled.”
This combined with the fact that no lightning protection was in place was a recipe for disaster he says in an area like Northcliff which is prone to lightning.
Fire Ops was on the scene quickly to extinguish the blaze and worked through the night until the early hours fighting the fire.
CEO De Wet Engelbrecht said, “This fire was so difficult to extinguish because of the roof tiles that had been installed on top of the previous thatch roofing. Getting water under the tiles to put out the fire was tough. We almost had to peel the roof off like an onion in a job that took over nine hours. A normal thatch roof fire would normally take only one hour and cause only limited damage.”
He said the difficulty with extinguishing a thatch fire is crews need to pull out all the thatch as it can smoulder in multiple places simultaneously. “This is a process and an extremely labour-intensive operation, which has to be done thoroughly.”
Taylor Daniels from ZD Fin who manages the estate said, “Tiles were installed over the existing thatch roofing, which remains in place as insulation.”
“Regarding lightning protection, the trustees diligently pursued advice from our insurance provider who advised that once the tiles are installed, the lightning masts can be removed. This also lead to a significant reduction in our insurance premiums.”
She says they have been in contact with several lightning protection companies to assess potential solutions for ‘our specific needs and are doing this with the utmost priority’.
Daniels says this is the first instance of this kind in the past three years.
Kanwischer said he has been approached again to quote for reinstalling lightning conductors.
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