Fire licks at history

One of the most valuable museum exhibits in the country, including treasured bottles of wine and 17th-century artefacts, was bundled onto bakkies to save it from the inferno that continued to sweep through the Cape Peninsula yesterday.

Historic bedsteads and tables were stacked together like cheap bunk beds as flames licked at the edge of the historic Groot Constantia estate, South Africa's oldest wine farm.

Traffic officers escorted the convoy of unusual cargo across town for safe-keeping.

"With all this history tied up in the building we simply can't take a single bit of risk," said Lalou Meltzer, the director of social history at Iziko Museums. "This collection is irreplaceable."

Unseasonal rain brought slight relief to Cape Town yesterday, helping firefighters battle the biggest fire in the city since 2000. For four days the blaze has swept across the southern peninsula, eating up forests and mountainsides and laying waste to homes.

Table Mountain National Park spokesman Merle Collins said R4-million had been spent on manpower to fight fires since Sunday. Two million litres of water had been dropped on the fire.

She said firefighters had saved the Tokai Manor House, a well-known landmark, by drenching it in water, but a nearby cottage was destroyed. "The cottage was 100 years old. It's priceless. How do you replace heritage?"

Thirteen other properties have been damaged.

Insurance companies are bracing for the fallout.

The cost of the fire will be far-reaching, with people having missed work, deliveries delayed and projects stalled.

Another Cape Town treasure, the Cape Town Cycle Tour to be held on Sunday, was affected. Organisers decided last night to shorten the race from 109km to 47km to avoid Chapman's Peak Drive, which has been deemed unsafe. It will go from the Civic Centre to the end of the M3 and back, to a slightly altered finish in Green Point.

• Additional reporting by Reitumetse Pitso, Farren Collins and Tanya Farber

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