FIRESTORM LEAVES HUNDREDS HOMELESS
200 EL families flee as gales drive fires from George to Makhanda
One small paraffin stove exploded in a howling wind, setting off an inferno that left 1,000 Duncan Village residents homeless and traumatised on Tuesday afternoon.
Many fled with only the clothes on their backs.
Fires and gales hitting 104km/h tore through two provinces from George to Port St Johns, knocking down a huge container crane in the Port Elizabeth harbour, destroying cars, closing trails and causing hundreds of evacuations.
The fires have claimed nine lives since last week.
In Duncan Village 200 homes were reduced to a smoking wasteland of charred and buckled metal sheets.
Among the babies, children and gogos left homeless was a mentally disabled man.
BCM fire chief Thembile Thompson said they believed the fire was caused by an exploding paraffin stove.
Thompson, whose 12 firefighters from Fleet Street and Gompo took two hours to quell the blaze, said they felt betrayed by the low water pressure. “Too many communal taps in this area feeding from the main pipe caused the problem.”
The station received the call at 3.39pm and firefighters were on the scene 16 minutes later.
Already 100 shacks had been flattened.
“Fortunately there were no fatalities or injuries. Police were here on the scene. We are in the process of informing the disaster management office. The gale played a major role in spreading the fire,” he said.
Ward two ANC councillor Ntombizandile Mhlola said some of the 200 displaced families would be temporarily housed in the Gompo and Parkside community halls. “We have already begun with the process of taking their names. I have contacted the social development department for food parcels. The BCM disaster office will provide blankets.”
When the Dispatch arrived at 5pm, some families were carrying fridges, washing machines and mattresses away as firefighters damped the blaze.
Families who had nothing to take away stood by quietly, despair etched on their faces.
Some were seen weeping, another wailed.
There was anger from some men, who told the Dispatch not to take photographs.
Rebuilding is expected to start on Wednesday.
Nomathamsanqa Mtyi, 63, said she was distraught about how to care for her mentally disabled relative, 57, and her grandchildren aged four and nine.
“I heard a big noise and saw a big smoke coming from the shacks on the lower streets and instructed the children to run to my friend’s place,” she said.
“We ran outside with my brother with buckets and went to help put out the blaze.”
Mtyi said a sudden blast of wind boosted the fire and sent it racing through the shacks.
While she was helping others save their goods, “it got out of control so fast that it destroyed my own house.”
A freezer was all Thabiso Dodi, 30, managed to salvage when her two shacks burned.
A massive fire on the Makhanda municipal rubbish dump fuelled by the gale threatwas ened to overwhelm the adjacent horse-riding club with more than 30 resident horses on Tuesday.
Horses were evacuated from the smoke-filled stables to nearby camps on the premises as the Makhanda fire department did all they could to fight the flames. Little fires were fuelled by the burning rubbish which blown all over the riding club premises.
Kingswood College, Diocesan School for Girls, St Andrew’s College, nearby farmers and the 6th SA Infantry army base all sent their firefighting equipment and staff to assist the riding club members and grooms to fight the blaze.
The local SPCA’s Mark Thomas kept a sharp eye on the welfare of the horses. He said his staff were on standby to evacuate the horses if required.
Some of the club’s arenas were burnt along with some of the showjumping equipment.
Two years ago, a fire from the municipal dump jumped across to the riding club, taking out almost 30 stables and causing millions of rands damage to other infrastructure.
The club is still in the process of rebuilding.
Rhodes University on Tuesday indicated it could also send its tanker to assist with the blaze if needed. The tanker was delivering water to desperate residents in Joza in Makhanda East after a power outage at one of the major pump stations left much of the city’s taps dry.
In Nelson Mandela Bay on Tuesday, a person was seriously injured as walls were blown down by the gale.
Bay EMS head and paramedic Ashwell Botha said a wall of an abandoned building across from the South End Museum had fallen over in the morning.
A wall fell onto a person in Sanctor, Bethelsdorp.
“The person was experiencing difficulty in breathing. Advanced life support interventions were requested and the person taken to hospital in a serious condition,” he said.
Transnet’s Port Elizabeth port manager Rajesh Dana said no employees were injured when a ship-to-shore crane fell.
An engineering team had assessed the damage.
“The crane has been secured,” he said.
On the Garden Route hundreds of people were evacuated from their homes.
On Monday evening, eight people who died trapped in a blazing house in the Bosdorp and Karatara area were named as Elsabe Windvogel, 42, Andrea Bewee, 21, Eljade Windvogel, 12, Nalaya Oelf, 5, Niah Oelf, 3, Ethan Windvogel, 2, Aliyah Oelf, 13 months and Nalani Oelf, 11 months.
More than 22 fires have been reported in the Garden Route area – some still burning, others contained and others being monitored.
On Tuesday morning, about 1,200 people were evacuated – some 1,000 from Karatara and more than 200 from the Rheenendal area.
Police later temporarily closed the Tsitsikamma Toll Plaza in Storms River and the N2 towards Kareedouw due to raging fires on both sides of the road.
Police spokesman Sergeant Majola Nkohli said the evacuation of about 200 people in parts of the Storms River area was a precautionary measure. –