Wildfires raging in Garden Route area

 Two raging wildfires in opposite sections of the Garden Route are still burning out of control, with efforts beefed up in an attempt to stop them from spreading.

By Wednesday morning, two separate fires -- both described as massive ‑‑ were reported along the Garden Route, one in the Tsitsikamma area, bordering the Garden Route National Park (GRNP), and the other in the Vermaaklikheid area in the Western Cape.

The GRNP was forced to temporarily close the Otter Trail and evacuate eight hikers when the fire appeared to have  jumped into the park,  affecting the hikers’ second section of the five-day hiking trail. “This is in a fynbos patch and not an indigenous forest area. So our resources are split between helping our neighbours  to extinguish the fire in the plantation and evacuating hikers through escape routes on the Otter trail,” a rescue official said.

While Day  two of the Otter trail is temporarily shut down, the official said  the Storms River Rest Camp remained unaffected.

The local Nelson Mandela Bay fire department confirmed that they were inundated with calls from curious residents in the morning about the smoke hovering over the metro, which according to fire fighters comes from the Tsitsikamma area fire – almost 160 km away. “It’s too early to determine if the trail will be open, and when. Once the fires are completely extinguished, we will be in a position to evaluate the extent of the damage and decide how soon the trail can be open,” she said.

Currently, fire fighters are still battling the fires. “Since 4am the control room has been alerted to smoke around the bay. Several fire vehicles were sent out to assess various areas but no fire was found,” another  officials said. “It is suspected that this smoke is travelling from the Tsitsikamma area.”

By midday, officials said both fires were still burning rapidly out of control. The Vermaaklikheid fire,  which is about 50km from Riversdale,  started on Sunday following unconfirmed reports of an Eskom power line fault.

On Wednesday it was still heading in the direction of Still Bay, but was 60% contained.

To date the Vermaaklikheid fire has seen nine houses destroyed, cellphone towers destroyed and a large area of wildlife grazing and fences damaged.

In addition, Working on Fire pilot Nico Heyns, 65, was killed during a helicopter crash about 40km from Riversdale on Tuesday.

Officials estimate that 200 square kilometres  of land has been already damaged by the fire.

Fire fighting efforts ran throughout Tuesday night, with the SA Airforce brining in another helicopter to assist, and Western Cape Provincial Disaster Management Centre  roped in by Wednesday.

Resources have since increased to two fixed-wing bomber planes, a spotter plane, an estimate 140 fire fighters and almost 30 firefighting trucks and vehicles.

The cellphone towers that had already been destroyed were hampering communication between various emergency worker departments.

Garden Route District Municipality spokesperson Herman Pieters said that the main objectives were to prevent loss of life and limit the economic impact of this wildfire. “During the night (Tuesday) a huge area was burnt out to make the area safe. This morning two active lines were reported,” he said. “As expected, several serious flare-ups are continuously battled in extremely hot conditions and challenges are to be expected.”

By midday on Wednesday, the Tsitsikamma fire in the Lottering plantation in Storms River was still moving rapidly.

The plantation area is owned by MTO  Forestry,  which owns several pine plantations between Cape Town and Port Elizabeth.

Forestry officials on the scene confirmed that about 200 fire fighters, on a rotational shift, had been battling the blaze since 2pm on Tuesday.

“We have worked throughout the night. We have teams on the ground fighting the fire but it is extremely hot and (as of midday) still out of control,” he said.

Kok said that  a preliminary assessment on the fires’ footprint showed that an estimate 6 square kilometres of plantation had already been burnt. “It is heading in a westerly direction (Plettenburg Bay direction). It is extremely hot and just running,” he said.

The plantation borders the  GRNP, sparking fears that it would spread into the park unless it was stopped.