Cape Town Fire/Smoke Alert Thread

Correction, the guy with the anemometer on Vergelegen said it gusted to 104km/h! I am sure the SE is born somewhere close to Grabouw!:D
 
It is the most amazing thing, the SE. At home in the mornings sometimes it is blowing so hard that I struggle to close the car door, yet I cross the N2/T2 onto the Sir Lowry's village side and with in 100m there is barely a breath of wind - I believe there is an invisible barrier along the N2/T2!!!!!
It also blows in 3 directions at once - E, SE and S-SE !!!! Well at least we never have pollution - until a fire comes along!

Whereabouts were you guys on Saturday night?
 
More like the border between Vergelegen and Lourensford. Next to Bontebok park.
 
I think I am going to enter the pamplet design for Fire awareness as emailed this morning. I have a few ideas, I must just become creative!
 
Considering the very watered-down version of the fires on Carte Blanche last night, I have submitted the following to them for consideration. I included links at the end to the threads on here, AvCom and FlyAfrica. Lets hope they are interested in taking this further:

As someone living on a smallholding at the foot of Sir Lowry's Pass with 10 horses - I have followed the fires for 2 weeks avidly as I watch them creep closer and closer....what is the real story and why have they been allowed to carry on for so long? I have been lucky to make contact with someone in the volunteer fire fighting services and thus followed the true stories and questions on several fora (discussion forums).
One forum is mostly the volunteers, another is frequented by some of the pilots .... if the following intrigues you, please read the full forum stories on the links posted at the end - I have felt sick and been in tears at times reading through all of this...

"My wife and her staff decided put some money together to take the fire fighters some food a refreshments out here today...

"These guys have been working 10 hour shifts around the clock...When her team got to the chaps, the fireman in charge burst out in tears saying that they are ready to start eating leaves (and there's not much of that left around here anymore)...and was very grateful for receiving this for his team.

Now this is how weird the world has become." Quote

"I firmly believe there is another agenda at play here. I think these fires are working in some one's favour. the attempt to put them out at this stage is half hearted to say the least. (I'm not talking about the poor suckers at the fire line, but someone higher up)" Quote

"FIREFIGHTERS are not allowed to tackle flames outside their jurisdiction, unless they are invited to do so by the local authority.
This is the crux of a mutual aid agreement between municipalities.
Reacting to recent criticism about firefighters standing idle near Grabouw while flames raged in the background, City of Cape Town district fire and rescue operations chief, Sebastian Martin, said officials were simply obeying the rules." Quote

"Why is the Kamov not used in the Helderberg fires?
It sure seems like the people in the Helderberg do not know what they are doing? Seriously. Why is it taking so long? " Quote

I have learnt a lot of interesting things here - things which need to be told to the public. Some of these also have the MOST amazingly spectacular photos as well. I do not personally know any of the people involved - they are people I have met via the forum and I have the utmost admiration for them all!

Please contact me if you need to know more - we would really like to see an end to these fires now it is very, very frightening to watch the flames creep closer and closer...
 
I think we were very close to the border between the two farms, gdiza. I am trying to find where we were on Google earth.
 
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Speaking of creeping closer, how does it look your way? I saw yesterday afternoon, that it picked up again close to Sir Lowry's Pass.
 
Looking a lot better this morning. They were bombing quite a bit yesterday late afternoon and there was only a bit of smoke left this morning - I feel considerably more positive today... lets hope it holds. I see AFIS isn't showing the spot at Sir Lowry's anymore either.
 
gdiza, I think we were at 34deg04'10.01"S 18deg54'46.95" E on Saturday. Roads and landmarks looks familiar.
 
That is good news samisty. But a lot better is not yet "dead out". Hopefully it dies out completely. I saw on Sunday morning that a lot of smoke is coming from holes where trees used to be. I.e. the roots of the burned out trees are still smouldering and burning underground.
 
It must be an amazing and eerie sight - not what one really wants to see, but nevertheless, it is reality at it's most intense.
I just think a lot of people need to answer some questions as to why it has gone on so long - why was it so intense, was there negligence in the plantations etc on the side of management, what about firbreaks, is it all the fault of the people in charge who didn't call out fire fighters in time. is there a lack of service on the side of the choppers.........so many questions
 
Good news there samisty, hopefully they finally manage to get it out as there is a 30kph southerly forecast for tomorrow and a 45kph south-easter for Wednesday. I saw the Mi-8 heading out twice yesterday so maybe they have finally decided to put the fire out.
 
Hopefully he got some rest! He and his bakkie just had some bad luck. Anyone could have knock over the pipe, as it was invisible in the grass, and secondly getting the bakkie stuck on a tree stump, was actually some sheer chance!
 
I see on AFIS there are currently 32 hotspots around Grabouw, CapeTalk have said that 150 people evacuated from outside of Grabouw. Here we go again.
 
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