The Tshwane Emergency Services and the Rietfontein community leaped into action to fight wildfires that swept across some farmlands over the weekend, threatening to destroy horses and other animals.
The non-profit Volunteer Emergency Medical Response Unit, said fortunately the animals were uninjured, and moved across wide dirt roads.
“Some animals were taken onto properties where firebreaks have been made. Some horses were also found on the road. They were promptly caught and moved onto a safe property,” the organisation said.
Members of the community assisted their affected neighbours with grass, food and water buckets for animals.
Emergency Services spokesperson, Lindsay Mnguni, said his department responded to multiple fire incidents where properties were destroyed by fire in Rietfontein near Delmas and Leeuwfontein near Cullinan.
Veld fire burnt two plots in Rietfontein while a thatched roof house was gutted by fire in Leeuwfontein.
Mnguni said firefighters from the grassfire unit were immediately dispatched after the incident was reported in Rietfontein and upon arrival began with firefighting operations.
“While they were busy they were approached by a member of the community informing them about a house on fire on a nearby plot,” he said.
Firefighters then called for backup and the emergency call centre dispatched multiple additional firefighting resources from Silverton, Erasmuskloof and Hazelwood Fire Stations to the incident.
Mnguni said the resources included two fire trucks, a district commander’s unit and a water tanker. “On the one plot the fire burned down the one main house, which had been abandoned and had no furniture inside, and a storeroom – all with thatched roofs. There was another main thatched roof house that was occupied but had not caught fire,” he said.
Grassfire also spread to the adjacent plot, affecting their lapa, but crews managed to extinguish it in time.
Mnguni said, “They also managed to protect this plot’s main house by tactically placing fire trucks to protect any further exposure and prevent any further fire spread. Firefighters managed to successfully extinguish all the fire in Rietfontein.”
In Leeuwfontein on Suidweg Road, firefighters attended to another incident where a house was also reported on fire, he said: “The City of Tshwane Emergency Services Department responded with a fire truck and a grassfire unit from Rayton fire station. They were backed up by a water carrier and a fire truck from Silverton fire station.”
He said firefighters found a vandalised unoccupied ten-room thatched roof house already burnt down. “They immediately began with firefighting and damping down operations which lasted until the middle of the night. No injuries were reported at either incidents and the cause of the fires has not yet been determined.”
He urged the public and small stock farmers to be cautious, and added: “ If there is any fire danger of exposure to dwellings, like shacks or houses, vegetation or veld fires, people should dial the toll-free number 107 for emergencies.”
Pretoria News