The Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Barbara Creecy says she is concerned about the situation in the South Peninsula where vegetation fires have been raging near communities and structures since Tuesday.
Creecy, who evacuated her private home in Simon’s Town on Tuesday evening, visits the area on Friday to get an update on firefighting operations.
The Minister says there are concerns about peoples’ lives and property at Simon’s Town and Glencairn because of uncertainty about the status of the wind this Christmas weekend.
“This is the time when everybody feels a high degree of anxiety, our thoughts are obviously with the most vulnerable in this situation, one of the areas I was keen to see is the Redhill informal settlement, which miraculously has escaped, we understand that events such as this always affects the most vulnerable in our society the most.”
VIDEO: Our ground teams are still on the fireline tackling flames. They were deployed by @TableMountainNP & are collaborating with firefighting organisations to suppress the #CastleRockFire#CoordinatedOperations #CollaborationIsKey #SavingLives@GovernmentZA @environmentza pic.twitter.com/n18tUOOUMG
— Working on Fire (@wo_fire) December 22, 2023
Residents urged to be vigilant
Meanwhile, the Disaster Risk Management Centre in Cape Town has requested those closest to the fire line in the South Peninsula to be on alert as the two mountain fires in the area continue to burn.
Charlotte Powell from the Centre says there have been no new evacuations since Thursday night, but people in the vicinity of Simon’s Town, Scarborough, Glencairn and Stonehaven should be mindful that the situation can change at any moment.
She advises residents to keep a ‘go’ bag with essentials and necessities just in case they are called upon to evacuate.
Powell has also asked people to make shelter arrangements for their pets. A large section of the South Peninsula remains blanketed in smoke as the vegetation fires are not yet out.
