Cape Town fire and rescue officials say fire fighters will continue battling a blaze that’s raged overnight on the slopes of Signal Hill and Lion’s Head mountains in the Cape Peninsula.
The cause of the fire is yet to be determined. At least 80 fire fighters are monitoring the blaze. Cape Town fire and rescue spokesperson Theo Layne says helicopters have joined efforts to control the blaze.
The blaze started on Sunday afternoon and was fanned by strong winds.
The fire on Lions Head left me with a lump on my throat this evening as I drove around documenting someone else’s complete stupidity. How can anyone be so selfish?! #CapeTownFire pic.twitter.com/UIhW1rXgop
— Mike Eloff (@LifeOfMikeZA) January 27, 2019
A resident from Fresnaye, an area in Sea Point Cape Town, situated at the foot of Signal Hill where the fire broke out, says she and other residents were extremely concerned about the fire, because it was burning so close to their homes.
Around 80 fire fighters with 20 fire fighting vehicles battled to contained the blaze overnight. Sinead Moore says she could smell the fire from her apartment.
“We heard about it via the news and we could smell it from the our apartment. We really really concerned. Mostly worried about the animals and the fire fighters themselves. We came out to see what we could do to help, give water we possibly could. We on our way down saw this and it was just getting worse so ja we quite concerned as a community and we can just do our best to help where we can.”
The Animal Welfare Society says it will assist with any animals that are injured or displaced as a result of the fire. Senior Animal Welfare Inspector at the society, Mark Leuvendal says, “Our plan is we’ve got two vehicles on standby. Anybody that knows of any stray animals running around or animals that are injured. We’re here to assist them by taking them back to our facility. We’ll keep them overnight and treat them if need be.”
Cape Town Fire and Rescue spokesperson, Theo Layne, says the cause of the fire is undetermined at this stage.
“The fire’s burning on Lion’s Head and it’s gone right up to the top of Lion’s Head and then on Signal Hill side it’s burning quite low down towards the residential properties and at some places it came down. There’s no danger to any property.”
Layne also says no injuries were reported due the fire.
Fresnaye side…. #KloofNekFire #SignalHillFire #LionsHeadFire pic.twitter.com/2WMRqQ0Wlm
— ?? Kat ?? (@PurringKittyKat) January 27, 2019
