Garden Route fires under control

Most of the fires that swept through thousands of hectares of the Garden Route from last Thursday were brought under control by late Wednesday, but large-scale humanitarian efforts are still under way in areas where scores of people have lost their homes.

Hundreds who had fled their homes in the face of fierce blazes driven by gales, flocked to the Sedgefield Community Hall in the resort village where aid organisations – Gift of the Givers and local disaster aid organisation Rebuild Eden – provided shelter and distributed millions of rands worth of aid.

Donations ranged from clothing and hot meals on site to food provisions and blankets.

While many victims in the hall on Wednesday were from Farleigh – a small, but fireravaged, San-Parks-managed community where eight people, including infants tragically perished in the blaze – the hall also sheltered people from several other areas where fires had come perilously close to their houses.

The many victims said they were grateful for the incredible assistance they had received.

However, they were concerned about where they would be housed eventually.

Speaking from the Sedgefield Hall, Gift of the Givers oper- ations manager Mario Ferreira described a massive aid effort which the organisation was effecting in the greater region.

“It is not just the Farleigh community which is being assisted. We have been providing assistance to scores of firefighters across the region, including those who are fighting the fires in the George area. Then there are many more residents from small towns and individual homesteads who have been reached and assisted.

“Millions of rands worth of aid, in various forms, has already been distributed among the needy,” he said.

Ferreira said about 200 Farleigh community members were being assisted in Sedgefield, but more than 500 were being assisted in total. This included 280 people in George.

Ferreira said the looming challenge was that many of the affected community members had no homes to return to.

“The lesson we all need to learn from this is that one cannot think that a disaster such as this cannot happen twice. We should learn from this and put measures in place to ensure it does not happen again.”

Disaster management stalwart, Lesley Langham of Rebuild Eden, heaped praise on the Sedgefield community.

“90% of the volunteers who assisted during the huge fires in Knysna last year are back here again, working long hours and doing amazing work,” she said.

The lesson we all need to learn is one cannot think that a disaster such as this cannot happen twice