Muizenberg Fire Blazes through the Night

A massive fire in Muizenberg has kept firefighters busy all day and into the night as gale force winds have been blowing, hampering their efforts.

Half an hour ago SAPeople received this moving message from a local resident, Sandra Lexie Sono-Nkosi‎: “Wish I could go out and take a picture but the smoke is too much for me. Ou Kaapse Weg Mountain [as the Muizenberg Mountain is known] is so red with fire right now.” 

In true South African spirit, residents and some local businesses like Steers and Woolworths have got involved to support the firefighters, many of whom are volunteers bravely risking their own lives to prevent the loss of others.

Fire crews from the Volunteer Wildfire Services (VWS), Table Mountain National Park and Working on Fire have worked tirelessly all day to try and control the blaze.

VWS posted the following picture with this message – “Thank you to Steers, Woolworths SA and members of the public for feeding our VWS #Newlands crew who have been at the #Muizenberg Mountain #wildfire since dawn. Much appreciated!”

One local, Warren Paterson tweeted “I feel like I should be driving out to Muizenberg with a bucket to try help stop this fire…”

Another posted the following message:

VWSWildfires (@vwsfires) have requested that everyone “Please stay away from areas being impacted by #MuizenbergFire unless you’re a resident. Please do not block fire services access.”

Helicopters have been flying in and out of the area all day, dropping water bombs (see video below).

KFM 945 have been keeping residents updated, and uploaded this photo at about 10 pm with the message – “Our thoughts are with the fire fighters, volunteers+helicopter pilots fighting the #MuizenbergFire tonight @vwsfires”

A couple of hours ago, VWS admin staff made their last update on Facebook before taking a well-earned rest for the night.

In the update they said “we are shutting down the Newlands Fire Base Office for the night shortly but we have a team on the Muizenberg Fire still working alongside Table Mountain National Parks, Contractors and Working on Fire. These teams will continue to work hard throughout the night to bring this fire under control.

“The VWS will send out more teams tomorrow to continue assisting with this fire. The crews from today are in need of some rest to come back re-energized.

“Food/drink donations welcome at the Westlake Fire Station collection point tomorrow.”

Please click here for an UPDATE – Muizenberg Fire Continue to Rage as Smoke Covers Cape Town

View UPDATE with time-lapse video of the #MuizenbergFire

Watch Video – Choppers, Muizenberg fire 1 March 2015

Uploaded by Margaret Dugmore – “Helicopters getting water out of Zandvlei to fight the fire in Peck’s Valley on Muizenberg Mountain.”