FIRE DEALS BLOW TO S. AFRICA’S ARCHIVES
A wildfire that burned vast areas of Cape Town’s iconic Table Mountain, historical landmarks and a university library that houses priceless collections of African antiquities was largely under control late Monday as evacuees were allowed to return to their homes in the area.
The fire was about 70 percent to 80 percent contained, although there was a danger that it could flare up again due to strong winds, said Philip Prins, fire manager for Table Mountain National Park. It began Sunday morning near the memorial to colonial leader Cecil Rhodes and quickly spread uncontrolled beneath Devil’s Peak in Table Mountain National Park in an area popular with weekend hikers and cyclists.
By Monday, winds approaching 30 mph had pushed the fire toward densely populated areas above downtown Cape Town, forcing the evacuation of residents living along some edges of the park.
A line of thick smoke billowed along the edge of Devil’s Peak toward the top of the mountain above the city for most of the day, engulfing office buildings and the Cape Town port in a choking white cloud.
More than 200 firefighters and emergency personnel battled the blaze.
At the University of Cape Town, known as UCT, officials inspected the damage to the historic Jagger Library, which contained rare collections of African books and archives.
“The library is our greatest loss,” the university’s vice chancellor, Mamokgethi Phakeng, told a local radio station. “Some of these cannot be replaced by insurance, and that is a sad day for us.”
Ujala Satgoor, executive director of UCT Libraries, described how “some of us watched, from on-site, with horror and helplessness” as the building burned.
Satgoor confirmed that “some of our valuable collections have been lost,” adding that “a full assessment can only be done once the building has been declared safe and we can enter.”