Sunday Times E-Edition

Teamwork saves lives in NMB fires

By GUY ROGERS and GILL GIFFORD

● Devastating fires that broke out in Nelson Mandela Bay this week, forcing many homes to be evacuated, appeared to have been brought mostly under control yesterday.

Exhausted firefighters have been battling flames since Tuesday.

With near gale-force winds in Gqeberha, water-bombing aircraft were grounded, leaving hard-pressed ground crews to damp down flare-ups on Friday.

However, on Saturday afternoon several small fires had ignited.

“I know the N2 has been closed for most of the day but I have just come back from Fairview which was one of our priority areas, and everything was OK,” said Nelson Mandela Bay spokesperson Mamela Ndamase.

“The helicopters sent out by Gift of the Givers are grounded and it is basically only our guys who are out there doing damping down,” she said.

Gift of the Givers spokesperson Corene Conradie said that by late Saturday afternoon the fires appeared to be under control. Monitoring was ongoing because “some wind and sparks were seen close to the new Baywest Mall”.

She said rescue workers were exhausted but pleased with their efforts.

“This could have been as big as the Knysna fire — sometimes we were fighting 10 or 12 fires at once. Our choppers were out dumping water and managed to put out one bush blaze that was heading towards a primary school and another one near a substation. They stopped another huge fire in Seaview, just 750m short of an informal settlement that is home to 1,500 people. We definitely saved lives,” Conradie said.

Residents of the New Rest informal settlement close to Seaview were evacuated late on Tuesday night. They were moved to the Seaview Community Hall.

“It was unbelievable. The whole community of Gqeberha came out. Farmers, volunteers, everybody, and there we all were just fighting alongside people you don’t know, all just dedicated to the task,” Conradie said.

She said Gift of the Givers had left water tankers in all 42 areas under threat to make

They stopped another huge fire in Seaview, just 750m short of an informal settlement that is home to 1,500 people. We definitely saved lives

Corene Conradie

Gift of the Givers spokesperson

sure there was no shortage.

The heavy winds fanning the raging fires dropped in the early hours of yesterday after extraordinary co-operation and goodwill triumphed to keep destruction at bay.

At Fernglen on Thursday, Renier Rossouw of Sunridge neighbourhood watch was directing a front-end loader as it cut a firebreak behind houses on the edge of the Baakens Valley.

“The worry is what happens overnight when the aircraft dropping water bombs cannot operate. The only solution is a firebreak.

“I closed [shop] and brought my team here to spend the day fighting fire and clearing bush.”

Rossouw contacted Deon van Rensburg of Metro Quarries, who supplied the front-end loader and driver at no cost, while Rossouw covered the fuel.

Asked about the expense, Van Rensburg said: “The saving for the community is bigger.” Bay safety and security boss Lawrence Troon said criminals were suspected of being behind some of the fires.

“They set fires and when our firemen come, they rob them at gunpoint.”

He said firefighters had been robbed in two separate incidents after receiving emergency calls.

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2022-12-04T08:00:00.0000000Z

2022-12-04T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://times-e-editions.pressreader.com/article/281814287890735

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