Fires, wind, hail hit KZN this weekend

AT LEAST 26 fires around KwaZulu-Natal at the weekend, including one that claimed the life of a man, could have been as a result of the recent inclement weather.

Tracy Carter, the KZN co-ordinator and a manager at Working on Fire, an organisation that was awarded a government tender to implement an aerial and ground resource plan for fighting veld fires, said 16 fires were reported on Friday, three on Saturday and seven yesterday.

“There have been high winds in the northern areas. On Friday we were told that winds were gusting at 84km/h in some areas,” she said.

Carter said yesterday that there was uncertainty about the cause of the fires, but suspected the weather was a key factor. She said the organisation’s firefighters had been put on “high alert” as a result.

“It’s very unusual weather for June; we normally expect wildfires around August or September,” Carter said.

She said all the fires, including at plantations and game reserves, had been contained.

Meanwhile, another cold front is expected to hit Durban on Wednesday following on the weekend’s bad weather, which included hailstorms in Overport and Durban North, as well as in Umkomaas in the South Coast.

There have been no reports of damaged homes but there were disruptions to flights at Virginia Airport.

The SA Weather Services described the storms as having been intense on Friday and Saturday.

Temperatures in Durban were as low as 11°C at the weekend.

However, Wednesday’s storm is not expected to be as intense.

Ray de Vries, spokesman for the Durban Airshow, which takes place at Virginia Airport next month said there were concerns at the airport on Friday.

“There was hail all over the runway on Friday evening. It was really scary,” he said.

He said the airport’s runway was closed on Friday night and reopened on Saturday morning, just as some passengers flew in for the rugby match.

A spokesman for the eThekwini Municipality’s Emergency Control and Disaster Management Unit, Stephen Hendrikse, said they had not received any distress calls after the inclement weather.

The KZN Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional affairs said it also did not receive any calls for help.

“Although we did not receive any calls for help, we do have systems in place in case of emergencies,” department spokesman, Lennox Mabaso, said.

“We have programmes in place where we educate communities on how to keep safe during the winter.”

And does the drop in temperature mean the annual sardine run is on its way? Head of operations at the KZN Sharks Board, Mike Anderson-Reade, said they were waiting for the cold front to pass before they could establish if the storm had any effects on the sardines.

“It’s been very quiet but there has been some activity south of Waterfall Bluff, between Mboyti and Port St Johns and south of Port St Johns, off the Umgazana and Umgazi areas. Hopefully there’ll be new developments by this week,” he said.