Invasive aliens intensified killer fires in Cape and Portugal

EXACTLY how the respective Knysna/ Portugal fires started is almost academic by now, but recent devastating wild fires in Portugal and the Southern Cape were intensified to the extreme by the prevalence of invasive alien plants, says Cobus Meiring of the Southern Cape Landowners Initiative (SCLI).

Ironically, Eden District Municipality, the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University Sustainability Research Unit and the SCLI hosted a seminar on the dangers posed by invasive alien plants four days before the Knysna fires erupted.

Between June 6 and June 10, fires destroyed more than 600 structures in Knysna and Plettenberg Bay when gale force winds exceeding 90km/h made fire fighting extremely difficult.

Days later, central Portugal was rocked by similarly deadly fires, with a shockingly high death toll.

Were South African authorities, such as Eden District Disaster Management, the Southern Cape Fire Protection Association, and the respective municipal emergency and fire-fighting services not as effective and courageous as they were, the death toll in the Southern Cape could undoubtedly have been much worse.

Deadly wildfires erupted across central Portugal on the afternoon of June 17resulting in at least 64 deaths and 160 injured people.

Most deaths took place in Pedrógão Grande, when a fire swept across a road filled with evacuees fleeing in their cars.

Portuguese officials dispatched more than 1 700 firefighters to help, and Prime Minister António Costa declared three days of national mourning.

Although on different continents, invasive alien plants played a significant role in the severity of both fires.

Any Portuguese conservationist will tell you what a blue gum, wattle, blackwood and long-leaved wattle is.

They will also tell you their prevalence in the Portuguese countryside, and the risk they pose in terms of fire, water security and biodiversity.

The Portuguese forests of Pinhal Interior Norte, where Pedrógão Grande is located, are predominately composed of pine trees and the invasive species, eucalyptus.

Eucalyptus has surpassed pine as the dominant tree in the country in the last 10 years.

Half of the Pinhal Interior Norte is now made up of wild eucalyptus plantations.

Back in Knysna, the mayor, Eleanore Bouw-Spies, acknowledged the severe psychological cost of the fire, let alone the threat to the jobs of at least 2 500 people in the popular tourist and artists’ haven.

Spies explained that the drought, the shortage of water and the proliferation of alien vegetation made the fire even more devastating.

Alien vegetation that seeds after the fire will have to be removed and experts need to be on the lookout for mudslides caused by the denuded hillsides and dunes.

According to Colin Deiner, Western Cape Disaster Management chief director, the fires led to the largest deployment of fire-fighting resources and personnel in a single incident in South Africa’s history.

Deiner said 985 fighters, 78 fire vehicles, six Oryx military helicopters, four Working on Fire helicopters and two fixed-wing bomber aircraft were deployed to battle the Knysna blaze, which lasted several days.

He called the deployment of resources the biggest success of Provincial Disaster Services.

This article was written by the Southern Cape Landowners Initiative, a public platform for landowners and land managers with an interest in the control and eradication of invasive alien plants in the Southern Cape.

The SCLI is supported by the Table Mountain Fund, an associated trust of World Wildlife Fund South Africa.