Cape Town mountain fire: investigation to kick off, damage to be assessed
Firefighters say that it seems the worst is over of the Cape Town mountain fire that broke out on Sunday.
CAPE TOWN, April 20 (ANA) – With firefighters entering their third day of the Cape Town mountain fire, it seems the worst is over.
In a press briefing at the Roeland Street fire station on Tuesday, firefighting chief Arlene Wehr gave an update on the fire that broke out on Table Mountain on Sunday morning.
Students had to be evacuated from the University of Cape Town (UCT) residences as the flames spread to the campus.
The fire destroyed a large part of the cultural landscape of the Rhodes Estate, the historic Tea Room next to the Rhodes Memorial, several buildings on the main campus – including include the Jagger Library, which held an internationally significant collection of historic archival documents and books – as well as the Fuller Hall residence.
Wehr said there were two branches in operation and four helicopters had been activated. The two main areas are the Devil’s Peak and UCT regions.
She applauded the fire crews for their amazing work.
“Our crews worked tremendously yesterday. Big ups to the firefighters. I would also like to thank the community and all other organisations for their support and assistance,” Wehr said.
Also at the briefing, mayoral committee member for safety and security Alderman JP Smith said that South African National Parks (SANParks) has appointed a forensic fire investigator.
He said so many things could have gone wrong with the fire, and emphasised how happy everyone was that no life had been lost and no residential property had been damaged except that of a parliamentary residence.
“The main threat remains Vredehoek, and the Zonnebloem area has been closed off.
“Firefighters are only damping down now and controlling little flare-ups, but the assistance of aerial firefighting appliances makes it much easier,” Smith said.
He said they were moving on to damage assessments and an examination of what was learnt about the fire and what measures needed to be put in place to prevent a recurrence.
Smith also commented on the Tanzanian national who appeared in the Cape Town Regional Court on a charge of arson for allegedly causing one of the fires on the mountain.
The man was arrested by the City of Cape Town’s Law Enforcement officers on Sunday night.
“We wait for the outcome of the arrest made. I don’t anticipate the person arrested having much to do with the initial fire, while it appears he may have been responsible for the later fires.
“However, we still need to apply our minds to the earlier instance and we are looking at CCTV footage,” Smith said.
He also urged residents within the vicinity with CCTV footage to come forward so enforcement agencies can assess it.
– African News Agency (ANA); Editing by Yaron Blecher
