AFTER fire THE
The Home team had to visit Knysna twice to capture Andries and Jayne’s house; Marian van Wyk remembers that day…
OOur first visit on 7 June was on the day the devastating fires engulfed the Garden Route. Our photographer Francois and I were battling gale-force winds of up to 97km/h and black and red smoky skies while photographing the Brinks’ beautiful home. Initially, we didn’t realise the magnitude of the disaster – later, we learnt that the blaze had eventually raged through 19 800ha, destroying about 1 200 houses and 12 900ha of plantations in the Eden district. Six people lost their lives.
By 15:00 that day, we were trapped in Knysna without our luggage, which was at our guesthouse in Sedgefield. At the same time – and all through the night – Andries was dealing with terrified patients at the hospital and an evacuation that had to be repeated when a temporary location also came under threat. Jayne, Ben and the dogs eventually had to evacuate their beautiful home (it survived intact!) – they ended up spending the night in their car. On our second visit, Jayne recalled the events of that fateful night: “When Andries told me the winds had turned and that I should get ready to evacuate, I knew that I was limited to what my car could hold.”
With clothes, food (of the human and dog variety), water, Andries’s photographic equipment and their computer hard drives in the boot, Jayne was acutely aware of how little any household items matter in a disaster of this magnitude.
“The only household items that I packed were a leather-bound bird book that Andries’s grandmother had given him, a book of wedding Polaroids, and our William Kentridge artwork which was a wedding gift from most of our wedding guests. I clearly remember thinking that none of our worldly possessions really mattered and that one or two things were meaningless without the rest of it.”
Jayne, Ben and the dogs spent the night at her friend and business partner Gina’s home on Leisure Isle, one of a few safe places that night. “Gina and her husband Francois had about 20 people and a menagerie of animals at their home but gave up their main bedroom for Ben as he was quite distraught. I ended up spending the night in my car with the dogs, who would howl unless I was there. Cellphone communication was down at times but from the bits of information we were receiving, I was convinced that we had lost our home and businesses.”
Back in Cape Town, the Home team, who had barely made it out of Knysna before the N2 was closed, received this note from Jayne, who found time to write it while the world around her was still in grave danger:
I am so glad that you got out without too much hassle. What a scary and sad time to be in Knysna! I was convinced we would have nothing to come back to but we were so lucky. We now have a house full of homeless friends and more animals than we can count. Thank you for coming and I hope that your homes weathered the Cape Town storms. Lots of love from a devastated Knysna.
Only later did we realise that in our rush to escape and find somewhere to sleep, something had gone horribly wrong and all the photographs had disappeared…
Looking back, the Home team’s memories are largely comprised of the generosity and kindness of so many of the locals, like Jayne and Gina who converted Madam Botany into a temporary charity shop for fire victims and the owners of our guesthouse, Pelican Lodge in Sedgefield, who cooked up a storm for the various temporary shelters.