Fire that brought a city together
Residents praise heroic strangers who came from far and wide to fight blaze
AS firefighters continued to battle small fires in Port Elizabeth yesterday, volunteers who went out on Tuesday night to help total strangers beat back the flames threatening to engulf their homes, told of the searing heat, and their fear – but also the exhilaration.
Armed with just about anything that held water, hundreds of firefighters and volunteers braved thorny terrain, cutting through barbed wire and fences in a desperate bid to stop one of the worst fires the city has seen in years.
Others helped evacuate the elderly, children and animals, including horses, from farms in the Lorraine area.
A number of homes in the Theescombe area were still without electricity yesterday due to damaged overhead power lines which, according to Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality spokesman Kupido Baron, were in the process of being fixed.
Shortly before noon, a fire in Sunridge Park had jittery residents on high alert before the flames were doused and the fire brought under control.
Residents whose homes were saved called those who had worked tirelessly into the night on Tuesday heroes.
George van Baalen, 37, of Kamma Heights, had about 200 people pitch up to help douse fires just a few metres from his home.
“It was such an amazing thing to see, how so many people – friends and strangers – pulled together to help out where they could,” Van Baalen said.
“Guys pulled in with self-made fire trucks and private trucks with water, and they even made a human chain with buckets filled with water to put out the fire.
“Even though the fire was diverted – just missing all the houses – there were instances when things got really hectic.”
He said the volunteers had had to cut down trees and thick bush to get to the flames, which had been towering up to about 8m at one stage. “There were no fire engines on the scene and the guys really did a lot, putting the fires out.
“They even lost some hair and shoes, while fighting off snakes in the process.”
While Van Baalen had a lucky escape, another resident, Lola Melck, 55, who lives in Chelsea Road where a house was gutted, said the boundary fence around her property had sustained minor damage.
“My biggest fear was for our animals, including the horses, on the property because all that smoke can kill them,” Melck said.
“When we got home, we saw that [the fire] was on the borderline and the absolute fear [that gripped us] was more for our animals’ safety because everything else is replaceable.”
Because the Melcks live in a cul-de-sac, they cut open part of their fencing to allow the neighbours’ horses through.
Kragga Kamma veterinary hospital’s Dr Kathleen Davids, 31, who helped gather horse trailers to transport the animals to a safer area, said about 60 horses had been moved from Lorraine.
“It was just amazing to see how the community came together to help,” Davids said.
“My phone did not stop ringing for about two hours with offers of help.
“About 50 people showed up with bakkies and horse trailers to transport the animals to the polocrosse club.
“We decided to evacuate the horses as a precautionary measure and, thankfully, there were no injuries.”
Lee Budler, 31, of Miramar, said he had wanted to help because his parents’ house in Theescombe had burnt down a few years ago.
“I made my own fire truck, filled bottles of water from a dam in Theescombe and drove to the heart of the fire in Montmedy Road, where we made a human chain and started dousing the flames,” he said.
“It was very chaotic but everyone knew what they were doing and there were so many people – it looked like a scene out of a movie.
“While we were driving down Chelsea
It was just amazing to see how the community came together to help
Road, the flames were as high as the windows of the truck, which did leave me fearing for my life a little bit, but the adrenalin was pumping throughout.
“Only when I got home did I realise that my chest was sore from inhaling all that smoke.”
Muhamed Shafee, 37, of Malabar, was among 12 volunteers from that suburb to make their way to assist with dousing the fires.
He said he felt empathy for the people whose houses were affected.
“We decided to help out because every hand would help, so we gathered empty containers and buckets and filled them up with water at an abandoned house nearby.
“Things got chaotic at a stage, but we approached the fire from the rear and tried to stay behind it so that we did not suffer too much smoke inhalation.
“When we started dousing the fires, I realised you cannot combat nature, but because we worked as a team we were able to,” Shafee said.
Baron said the cause of the fire could still not be determined.
“A westerly wind flared up early on Tuesday night after [a] house was razed in Chelsea Close,” he said.
“[This was] after a bush fire was reported at approximately 10.15 that morning in the Theescombe area, but we [have not been able to] determine the cause as yet.
“The fire and emergency services were on high alert as we continued to battle numerous bush fires [on Tuesday] in Tiryville in Uitenhage, Circular Drive, Kragga Kamma, Theescombe, Greenbushes and the Draaifontein area as well as in La Roche Drive [Humewood],” Baron said.
According to a fire and emergency services official, they have attended to an average of 20 fires a day since Monday.