It's fire season in Kommetjie and once again houses have been endangered by a carelessly discarded cigarette butt, fanned by a strong wind and developing into a runaway veld fire that has become the norm at this time of year. The helicopters were there within half an hour of the fire starting, by which time it had swept down from Ocean View and was burning merrily in the back gardens of the houses on the upper reaches of Slangkop. As they chopped up the skies overhead, carrying bucket after bucket of sea water from Long Beach to dump on the burning vegetation, one couldn't fail to be impressed by the effectiveness of this method of firefighting. Large areas were doused with each dumping, and it wasn't long before it was all over and there was nothing left to do but start the big clean up inside the houses which were now filled with a thick layer of black ash.
The same area was devastated only two years ago, except it was at night and helicopters couldn't be used. So it was up to the apparently incredibly fit firemen to climb the hillside by torchlight, and put out the flames using the traditional beating method. That night, as tree after tree burst into fireballs in the gale force wind, it seemed as though the battle was being lost, when suddenly the wind ceased completely and within a very short time, the fire was almost completely under control. Definitely an intervention from above.
No comments:
Post a Comment