Fires ravage Melmoth area

THE Melmoth and Babanango community spent the last week assessing the damage caused by devastating fires last Sunday.

The fires were fanned by strong winds and 7067ha were burnt of which 5221ha and 1846ha were in the Melmoth and Babanango areas respectively.

These fires have again highlighted the importance of fire awareness as Zululand enters the ‘fire season, which is set to start on 1 July when bombers will be deployed at strategic areas in the region.

The Melmoth fires were reported at 10.33am and were fought for more than 17 hours.

The Babanango blaze was reported at 12.15pm and firefighters took 12 hours to bring the blaze under control.

In the Melmoth area, timber plantations were hardest hit with 3404ha being burnt of which 1004ha is expected to recover. The rest was totally destroyed.

Babanango lost mostly conservation and grasslands with 1721ha being lost, while 125ha of timber plantations were burnt of which 20ha is expected to recover.

Melmoth further lost 150ha of pasture and 106ha of sugar cane of which 65ha is recoverable.

The Melmoth region had access to two bombers and a spotter with just under 500 firefighters on the ground while 1296 mopped up the fires during the week.

Sixty-five firefighters tackled the Babanango fires during the weekend and 70 mopped up the blaze.

With the dry weather and lush vegetation, fires can easily get out of hand and coupled with the heavy winds as experienced last weekend, the recipe is ripe for disaster.