TABLE MOUNTAIN FIRES UNDER CONTROL
SOUTH African National Parks (SANParks) says the Table Mountain wildfire is under control.
Firefighters have been battling blazes in Table Mountain National Park since Sunday, with the strong South-Easter from earlier this week fanning the flames.
But Wednesday morning, fire has spread from Newlands, over the saddle between Devil’s Peak and Tafelberg all the way down to the Table Mountain Road on the front side of the berg.
On Thursday, with the winderige conditions subsiding, SANParks say they monitoring the situation after extinguishing most of the blaze.
A statement reads: “The fire then flared up on Tuesday night due to strong winds. By this morning [Thursday] the Newlands Ravine, front face of Table Mountain and surrounds had been suppressed.
“While the Red Hill fire, which started later on Sunday, was tentatively contained yesterday [Wednesday] afternoon, there was a flare-up later and three new fires. These fires have been contained but fire suppression activities are ongoing.
While most of the hiking trails remain closed to the public, the Platteklip Gorge and Kloof corner trails are now been reopened.
On Wednesday, the City of Cape Town announced that they are investigating a possible case of arson.
Mayco member of safety and security JP Smith said: “As we already had our spotter plane up in the air dealing with the Newlands fire, we asked it to divert to the Simon's Town area to provide an assessment [of the Red Hill fire].
“The visual evidence we received was startling. The fire had been started directly next to a deserted road and just minutes later no person was in sight.”