It started as a Facebook request for help for firefighters. Two days later, Natasha Brands needed a field to store the avalanche of donations she'd received from Cape Town residents.
Earlier, Brands set up a table with coffee and snacks for firefighters in the Tokai forest.
She said: "It was a 'morning refuel' for firefighters where I supplied coffee, rusks and doughnuts I'd made the previous night. From that [small beginning], people started putting out their own Facebook messages and then I just got the most amazing response."
After the first day, she had enough donations to fill the local community church.
The gifts included cookies from schoolchildren and face-masks from a cancer NGO.
The encroaching fire in the Tokai forest forced Brands to evacuate her coffee station, and set up a second makeshift base near the forest entrance.
"We're not going anywhere and will be here right through the night," Brands said.
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