No knowing what nature will do

The devastating fires that raged through the fynbos in Knysna, the wall of flame which has surged through the forests of Portugal and the sheer horror of being trapped as an inferno engulfed a 24-storey tower block in west London, graphically underline the cataclysmic forces nature can suddenly unleash.

The Knysna conflagration claimed six lives, but caused as yet not fully computed multimillion rands in damages as fires destroyed around 600 homes along the Garden Route.

In the forest fires that originated in the Pedrogao Grande district of central Portugal, 60 lives were lost and in the apartment block catastrophe in Kensington, London, police estimates put the total of dead or missing at 79. Chilling as the figures are, these are not terror attacks, but illustrate that as humans we have no control over the forces of fire – which have the fearsome capacity of wiping out in an instant what has taken years to build and nurture. There are, in short, no real guardians against natural calamities.

But devastating as these fires proved to be, the indomitable resilience of the human spirit shone through as South Africans rushed aid to Knysna, the ordinary Portuguese rose to help fellow citizens and Londoners united in grief for the flat dwellers.