A vegetation fire that broke out along the Helderberg Marine Protected Area (MPA) in Strand on Monday morning (15 April) was fuelled by strong winds and eventually contained just hours later, just metres from the fence of the Rheinmetall Denel Munition depot.
According to Jermaine Carelse, spokesperson for the City of Cape Town’s Fire and Rescue Service, the emergency call was received shortly after 10:00 of vegetation burning near the vicinity of the private hospital and Paardevlei precinct, just off Beach Road.
“Several crews were on scene, as this was an extensive area of vegetation burning,” he stated on Monday afternoon.
Carelse said a total of eight firefighting resources from various local fire stations with about 30 firefighters responded.
“Aerial support was requested from just after 11:00 and the fire area was water bombed for an hour. By the afternoon the fire was contained but crews were still on site as considerable work had to be done to extinguish the blaze.”
Carelse said allegations that vagrants started the fire could not be verified.
Lisa Starr, founder of Helderberg Ocean Awareness Movement, said the MPA boasts plenty of flora, which hosts many insects that birds and animals feed off. “There is life within the flora that has sadly been destroyed,” she said.
“We have seen the presence of two Aurora house snakes, Cape clawless otters and caracal to name a few. Hopefully they had time to move away. The birds will have flown away, but if there were any fledglings they will have perished. We are grateful to all the emergency services involved, especially the Winelands Fire Protection Services that dispatched the Quick Reaction Force helicopters.”
