Smoke on the Mountain, a Fire in the Sky (with apologies to Deep Purple!)
Hi there everyone
We had great excitement here yesterday, and I thought I would share it with you all. Where I live - the southern peninsula in Cape Town - we are very prone to fires in the summer, as this is a winter rainfall area and we also have the wonderful (NOT!) south-easter wind (AKA the Cape Doctor) to contend with.
While summer has barely started here, the wind was blowing like a maniac yesterday, gusting up to 65 kph. The area right behind my home is virgin mountain and a fire started there yesterday morning. I had to go out in the mid afternoon, and when I got back, I found they were only letting residents through. There were fire-engines, emergency workers, police, et al all along my road, which is the upper-most one. Helicopters were also collecting water from a resevoir in the valley and dropping it on the fire.
Apparently I had missed a lot of the excitement, as my neighbour told me that the emergency services were going to evacuate us, when the wind suddenly changed direction and blew the fire back up the mountain again. There were two fire-engines right outside my home for most of the night, and one of them stayed all through the night.
This morning at first light, the helicopters were back, as the fire had continued to burn throughout the night, and the fire-fighters were up on the mountain, beating it out. It took them most of the day to extinguish it, as it kept flaring up again in different places.
While we were all safe this time, it's the wildlife I really feel sorry for, especially the tortoises, and the young, who cannot get away in time. However, here in the Cape, the local indigenous flora needs fire from time to time in order to continue to germinate, so it is a bit of Catch 22 situation. And since we have the largest floral kingdom in the world here in this tiny little area of the south western Cape, that is a very important part of our heritage as well.
Finally, I'm sure I can speak for everyone, all round the world, in thanking the brave men and women of the fire services, who put their lives on the line in order to keep the rest of us as safe as they possibly can. We appreciate you all, wherever on the planet you may be - thank you!
(BTW, the photos were taken from my front door)
Recent Comments
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Thanks for that 'news scoop' and dramatic photos Eunice. (Maybe you can sell some of them to the papers?)
Up here in Durban the South wind has blown up the left overs of your Cape winter, and so far it's been a particularly cold and wet spring.
(BTW: Regarding your heading, I was just going through all my old records to sell yesterday, and that song was churning around my head all day!:).
Ha ha - great minds? Thanks, but you should have seen all the photographers up here - and some of the incredible lenses, so I don't think I have a chance with my basic equipment :)
Wow, that is something else...I thought I would wait and come back to this...I see you fixed the photos, much easier to see now. That would be totally freaky to have a fire so near to your home.
Yes, thanks Kim, as I mentioned to Loes, I was having trouble with my computer generally and did a re-start. It occured to me that that might have been what was causing the problem, and lo-and-behold! - it was:))
:) Thanks Michelle. It could have been a lot worse - it didn't come down to the road, which it has done in the past, so I consider we were all very fortunate. Thank goodness the wind direction changed!
Thanks for sharing, reminded me of the terrible bushfires back in Australia some time ago. Where many lives were lost. Glad no one was hurt cheers.
Yes, the bushfires in Oz are really terrible. Fortunately, our indigenous vegetation is fairly low growing, and without a very high oil content. We do have major problems with Port Jackson though, which was imported from Oz a hundred or more years ago in order to control the dunes. It has become a hugely invasive plant though, and it burns very easily, which makes things a lot worse than they should be. The council employs many people to routinely clear the alien vegetation from the mountains, so I suppose, in a way, it has been a useful thing :)
Hi Eunice,
That's an incredible thing to happen on your doorstep. Your photographs are amazing.
All the best,
Brandon
Thanks Loes. Just realized I can ask Kathy (Kathy331). When I get the answer, I will post them again...
Update Loes - I was having trouble with other programmes on my computer, so I restarted, et voila, I was able to upload the photos correctly this time! (Originally, I couldn't get the 'Insert Image' icon to work properly at all, so I used the little camera at the top next to the title. I now think that the image from that is small as it is meant for the title only)
Moral of the story - when in doubt, restart the computer!
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OMG, I'm glad you're safe. If you took these from your door, you're way too close for comfort!!!!
Lol, thanks Debbi! Fortunately, by that point, the wind was blowing the fire along the mountain, rather than down towards us