Fifth day of panic for St Francis residents

Exhausted Cape St Francis residents, firefighters resume battle

JUST when the residents of Cape St Francis thought they had won the battle, veld fires flared up again yesterday, causing a fifth day of panic as dozens of luxury homes in the coastal town came under threat. The fires started at about 2pm on Saturday and have flared up repeatedly since then.

Wearing gumboots and soot-covered clothing, exhausted residents scampered around with garden hoses yesterday, spraying the areas around their homes with water, while others put lawn sprinklers on thatched roofs.

Others ran around cutting down trees and ripping out any kind of vegetation that could catch alight in an attempt to create firebreaks around their properties.

“This will probably be my third sleepless night this week,” an unshaven Jason Reynolds said while loading branches onto the back of a trailer.

He paid no heed to his smoke-blackened clothes and the cuts on his hands and arms as he picked up branches of fynbos and other plants cut down around his house.

His eyes were bloodshot and he seemed completely drained.

Many other equally exhausted residents, with bandanas and cloths tied around their faces, threw anything that could act as kindling out of the fire’s path.

Several waited for instructions from the firefighters on duty.

Firefighters and volunteers from Working on Fire patrolled the blackened and smouldering bushes surrounding the houses later.

“I have lived here for nine years and I have never experienced anything like this,” Reynolds said.

“The fire came within a few metres of my house and, for a moment, I thought I might lose it.

“We sprayed the house with fire retardant and started removing anything around the house that could fuel the fire.

“Other than that, we don’t really know what to do.

“At this point, it does not matter what we do, as long as we just do something.”

Reynolds said as soon as his property was safe he would go to the next house to help his neighbours. At the same time, a helicopter flew overhead, scooping water from pools in the area and dropping bucketloads of water on the flames that still ravaged the bushes between the main village and the Cape St Francis airstrip.

Another helicopter was doing the same around the St Francis Links golf estate, trying to prevent fires from spreading to the course and houses in the estate.

Earlier, homes in nearby Mostertshoek, Rebelsrus and Thyspunt were damaged when strong winds pushed the blaze west in the direction of Oyster Bay.

Almost 500 hectares of fynbos was destroyed.

The total extent of the damage has not yet been determined.

Residents from the Sea Vista township and industrial area had to evacuate their homes yesterday afternoon, but the blaze was put out before it damaged any houses.

The residents were able to move back into the area last night.

Kouga chief fire officer Dewald Barnard said he thought they had beaten the blaze on Tuesday night, but it was back to full strength early yesterday.

“We thought our work was done, but yesterday was like day one all over again,” he said.

“One moment the wind was still in our favour, and the next moment it turned against us.

“Embers from the previous day must have been rekindled when the wind changed direction.

“The fire started between the dunes – where we had trouble getting to it – and just grew from there,” Barnard said.

Firebreaks in places around the edges of Cape St Francis had helped to keep many houses safe.

Barnard thanked the firefighting crews and helicopter pilots who had come from as far as the Western Cape to help.

“So now we will be keeping a close eye on the situation and hope we can contain the fires with minimum damage from here on,” Barnard said.

In November 2012, a blaze destroyed 76 houses in St Francis Bay.