Runaway fires cause havoc; plea to be alert
Do not burn without a permit, fire department warns
Makana Fire Station commander Vuyokazi Sam has asked property owners to be alert after extensive fires earlier this week that caused havoc on the N2 and threatened property on the R67 between Port Alfred and Makhanda.
Sam said a planned burn on a property next to the N2 east of Makhanda (the Peddie road) turned into a runaway fire as winds picked up on Thursday August 31.
Makana fire fighters, provincial traffic officials and residents, from the N2 east of Makhanda to the R67 between Port Alfred and Makhanda, were on high alert on Thursday August 31 as thick smoke hampered vision and flames tore across the veld after a planned burn went awry.
Sam said it was concerning that in recent months, owners had been conducting prescribed burns without the correct authorisation.
There were three areas burning outside Makhanda on August 31, Sam said: on the Peddie Road (N2) near the FM towers, Manley Flats, and Belmont Valley up to the R67.
“There was a [planned] burn being done next to the Peddie road,” Sam said. “It was done without a permit.
“It could easily have caused fatalities because visibility on the N2 was so poor we had to call provincial traffic authorities to assist.
“We were lucky this time because it was only vegetation and some fences that were damaged.
“No lives were in danger of people or livestock.
“The Makana fire crew tackled the fire with the resources they had.”
Sam said burning without a permit was a serious problem.
“It seems also that people are burning without checking the weather: Thursday’s fire spread in dry, hot, windy conditions.”
Timeanddate.com records a high of 20ºC, cloud cover and 39km/h winds by midday for August 31.
R67 property owner Basil Mills said the fire had come up from the direction of the golf course in Belmont Valley, jumped the R67 and continued through a private game reserve.
Belmont Golf Club secretary Megan McCullum confirmed that several plastic water tanks were damaged in the fire.
Mills told TOTT: “We tackled the fire from the main road on both fronts and fought all the way down the mountain
side to Belmont Valley and over the road into Buffalo Kloof.”
Last Thursday’s drama comes after a fire scorched the east slope of Mountain Drive, west of the R67 between Port Alfred and Makhanda on August 22.
A week later, TOTT’s Sid Penney reported from Makhanda that terrified Sunnyside residents watched as another fire came within 10m of some houses and dangerously close to the ambulance base.
Sam said the first two fires were likely to have been started by a cigarette butt thrown from a car window, or vagrants who leave fires unattended.
When to burn
Prescribed (“controlled”) burning is practised as a tool in land management on farms and in protected conservation areas.
It is meant to lessen the risk from veld fires to people, infrastructure, livestock and wildlife.
Some burning is done to encourage new growth of certain types of vegetation; usually, burning is done to create firebreaks.
The provincial Disaster Management Centre issued a notice prohibiting burning or open fires in Makana Local Municipality from July 1 to October 31, and in Ndlambe from December 1 to March 31, due to the veld fire season and prevailing drought conditions.
Conditions for burning
During the periods that burning is allowed, it must be done under the following conditions:
● The chief fire officer of the municipality (metro, district or local) must approve burning operations according to their respective burning permit systems and community fire safety bylaws;
● Land owners and traditional leaders must apply a minimum of seven days before they intend to burn, and must get final approval on the day of the planned burn;
● Section 12(5) of the National Veld & Forest Fire Act (NVFFA) 1998 states that all bordering landowners must be informed of burning operations;
● The NVFFA places a duty on all landowners to have all precautions in place to prevent a veld fire from spreading or causing damage.
People are urged to be extremely vigilant and to report any fires to the Local Fire Protection Association and municipal fire services. Alternatively, to the ambulance services (10177), SAPS (10111) and 112 cellphone emergency number.
Anyone contravening this notice may be liable and face prosecution under the Fire Brigade Services Act 99 of 1987, the National Veld and Forest Fire Act 101 of 1998 or any applicable legislation.
❝ People are burning without checking the weather