Cape Town's fire and rescue services spokesman, Theo Layne, has seen it all in his 27 years as a fire-fighter. The summer fire season, which officially closed on Monday, was typically challenging.The fire season ends as the rainy season arrives, and the close of this year's season was delayed because of the absence of rain, said Philip Prins, of SA National Parks.Layne said the sharp rise in the number of fires this season was attributable to climatic conditions."We do have a lot of what we call nuisance [vegetation] fires that we suspect are started maliciously."He distinguished between arson, for financial gain and incendiarism - fires started with malicious intent - but said proof was often hard to find."They are usually caused by children with nothing else to do. It's the fascination of the fire," he said.Looking back at the fire that raged for six days in March on the South Peninsula, Layne said night fires were the biggest problem. "On day one, the helicopters were on standby, but they cannot be flown at night."The fire had five 'fingers' as it spread in different directions. It stayed on top of the mountain, which made it inaccessible. We also had high temperatures."We experienced problems with communication between departments - for example, with traffic services. Communication is key."Despite the damage it caused, he said the fire in January 2000 was bigger, although fire-fighting resources were now better, due to a compressed air foam system and offroad vehicles...