Fires leave trail of loss from Mossel Bay to Dunoon

When the fire tore through Mossel Bay’s Aalwyndal last week, singer and songwriter Hazel Stone had only minutes to decide what could be saved from a life built over more than three decades.

As smoke closed in, Stone fled with little more than her children’s holiday suitcase, her fiancé’s work clothes, a laptop containing 32 years of music, her microphone and her wedding ring. An asthma attack forced her to stop as the fire moved closer.

The blaze was among a series of fires that swept through parts of the Western Cape, affecting communities across the socio-economic divide.

In Mossel Bay, at least 10 homes were destroyed in the Vakansieplaas area, where a three-bedroom house can sell for up to R3.8m and rural lifestyle properties in nearby Aalwyndal can fetch as much as R14.9m.

“Our neighbourhood is a plot with the most beautiful views you can imagine. We call it our paradise,” Stone said.

She lives there with her fiancé, Kevin Nevill, and their three children. They evacuated at about 6pm on January 6.

“My fiancé phoned me at 5.15pm and told me to pick up the kids, come home and grab what we could. I worked until 5.30pm. By the time I got there, the flames were already on the side of the road,” she said.

“I only managed to take my children’s holiday suitcase, my son’s clothes in the washing basket, my fiancé’s work clothes and underwear, my laptop with my 32 years of backing tracks, my microphone and my wedding ring. Then I couldn’t breathe any more because I have asthma. I didn’t even take any clothes for myself.”

Stone said important documents were left behind.

“We had very important court documents in our flat, my kids’ birth certificates and my vehicle papers, which is not even yet in my name,” she said.

The family is staying at a friend’s beach house because their home remains filled with smoke and ash.

“Luckily, we only lost our patio two-seater and plants,” she said. “It felt like being in a horror movie.”

About 400km away, fire also tore through Site 5 in Dunoon, Cape Town, where about 1,000 shacks were destroyed on Thursday, leaving about 5,500 people homeless.

Gift of the Givers spokesperson Imtiaz Sooliman described the blaze as “probably the largest informal settlement fire in the Western Cape since the Khayelitsha fire of 2013”.

“Dunoon was razed to the ground by an uncontrollable fire, stoked by strong winds,” Sooliman said.

“As helicopters fire-bombed and firefighters on foot did the best they could, 5,500 of our fellow compatriots became refugees in their own space as more than 1,000 dwellings were totally obliterated.”

Site 5 resident Ntombi Kombela returned from work to find everything she owned reduced to ash and twisted sheets of metal. The only clothes she had were those she was wearing.

“I came back from work and found my home smouldering. Everything had burnt,” she said.

“I borrowed the clothes I am wearing from neighbours. I only have my work uniform. This area burns every year around the 31st of January. This year, we thought we had been spared, but here we are.”

Other coastal towns were also affected. In the Overstrand municipality, which includes Hermanus, Stanford and Gansbaai, fires threatened homes and critical infrastructure.

Overstrand mayor Archie Klaas said four properties were destroyed in the area, while the Panthera Africa Big Cat Sanctuary, home to lions and cheetahs, was under threat.

“Our first fire started on October 25. Between then and today, we have had 205 veldfires,” Klaas said.

“The major fire was the Gansbaai fire. At some point, when we were trying to calculate the area it covered, it was almost 40km. We had to evacuate people from the Eluxolweni informal settlement and a couple of resorts.”

Klaas said the fire’s proximity to the big cat sanctuary was concerning.

“I have never prayed so much in my life,” he said.

“We have the Panthera Africa Big Cat Sanctuary with lions, tigers and other animals. The Stanford fire was getting too close to it, and we knew that if it reached the sanctuary, we would have had a crisis on our hands. Fortunately, we managed to stop it very close to the boundary.”

He said the fires came “frighteningly” close to homes in Pearly Beach.

“At one point, a firefighter stood on someone’s staircase fighting the fire,” Klaas said.

“We also saved Eskom infrastructure, which would have plunged the whole area into darkness, and water reservoirs.”

While properties worth up to R150m in Hermanus were at risk. Klaas said the priority remained human life.

“Four houses were damaged in the Gansbaai and Pearly Beach fires,” he said.

“I called on the churches to pray. The wind is not as intense as it has been over the past few days. At present, the fire in Stanford is contained, but the challenge there remains invasive vegetation.”