Massive Cape Winelands wildfire burnt more than 24000 hectares

A massive wildfire broke out in the South African town, Cape Winelands, near Worsley in Western Cape that has burnt about 24,000 hectares. The fire zone stretched more than 6.5 kilometers at one point.

The fire lasted more than ten days and destroyed the area, extending over 24,000 hectares of land. More than 158 firefighters were working to extinguish the massive wildfire outbreak in Cape Winelands.

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The fire outbreak was initiated on Jan 22, 2024. Since then, NCC Wildfire Services had been battling the massive blaze in Cape Wineland’s town.

The firefighters spent over 150 hours trying to extinguish the major fire outbreak at Cape Winelands. The ten teams, with one hundred and fifty-eight firefighters, fought the fire on the ground.

According to one of the firefighters, Ian MacBlane, he has been a firefighter for two years, yet he has not witnessed such a massive fire outburst. Ian is a citizen of the United States who is now working with NCC wildfires. He usually worked on wildfires in Alaska, United States. Alaska also usually experiences massive fire outbreaks.

However, Ian stated that he had never seen a fire like this throughout his career. The fire went up through the mountains. When he entered a large fire, there was a cloud of smoke. Everything turned black, and his heart started racing.

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The Cape Winelands fire was worsened by strong winds and heavy fuel loads. It also gave a hard time for firefighters to put off the fire for days.

The squad leader of NCC Wildfires (firefighters team), Tarren January, claimed that firefighters had to walk over uneven terrain to reach the fire zone. In addition, they faced burning temperatures, dry foliage, and strong winds.

A spokesperson for Cape Winelands town, Jo-Anne Otto, told News 24 that rough terrain proved to be the hardest thing for firefighters to put off the fire.

However, the Western Cape government has announced an extra R3 million rands to help deal with the wildfires outbreak. It brought the total wildfire aid budget to R19 million rands.

The authorities expect more than 7,000 wildfires in the province of Cape Western in South Africa based on the data from last year.