A Season of Fire
Words: Russel Wasserfall // Pictures: Stefan Weiss
27 January 2024 – a helicopter returning from a water-bombing run on the slopes of Table Mountain below the cable car where a wildfire was sparked by a parked car that caught alight. Photographer: Stefan Weiss
As wildfires around the world snatch headlines and global warming becomes a hot topic at dinner tables, Cape Town’s fire season is taking its place in the conversation. Australia, California, Greece and France have suffered in the flames, and South Africa’s ‘Mother City’ is also adding notches to firefighter’s belts.
Settled on Africa’s southern tip and famous among world travellers for its distinctly Mediterranean climate, Cape Town is celebrated as a modern city with easy access to outdoor living and the wild nature right on it’s doorstep. The iconic Table Mountain rises 1,000 metres above the city at its foot, and most of the slopes above the city are part of an untamed National Park. With a short, wet winter and long, dry summer those slopes are extremely vulnerable to a careless match or untended cooking fire.
30 January 2024 – A firefighter battles the blaze in Pringle Bay in the Overstrand District near Cape Town. A small number of homes were gutted and around 95% of a nearby nature reserve was burned Photographer: Stefan Weiss
With average daily temperatures in Summer on the rise, strong Atlantic winds and the effects of El Niño weather patterns emergency services across the Western Cape Province are on high alert as fire season approaches. The 2023/2024 fire season was arguably the worst in the province in several years. According to a report by Victoria O’Regan and Kristin Engel in the online South African news service ‘Daily Maverick’ dated 11 February 2024: “Between 1 December 2023 and 31 January 2024, more than 6,000 fires have chewed through nearly 100,000 hectares, making this fire season one of the most active in years.” Read the full story here.
20 December 2023 - Working on Fire was waterbombing the slopes above Millers Point in the Simon’s Town area using three Huey helicopters and over 300 staff on the ground. Five firefighters sustained injuries and two were taken to hospital. Here a chopper is seen refilling its bucket for another ‘bombing’ run. Photographer: Stefan Weiss
The intensity of this fire season has led many locals to speculate that the fires are the product of arson, but allegations remain untested and unproven. What is more likely is that hotter and windier Summer conditions, dry vegetation peppered with alien or invasive species, and careless human activity are the true culprits. The seasonal influx of local and international visitors with little knowledge of local conditions may also be a contributing factor when one considers the South African culture of cooking over open fires.
27 January 2024 - A parked vehicle caught alight, and ignited nearby vegetation below the Table Mountain lower Cable Car Station. At one point the cable car itself was used to attempt to suppress the flames. Photographer: Stefan Weiss
Be that as it may, Capetonians have become used to seeing the yellow Huey helicopters belonging to Working on Fire in the skies above. It’s the soundtrack of summer. Their brave pilots haul and refill water buckets to ‘bomb’ hotspots identified by groundcrews or spotter planes.
The best advice for visitors to the Mother City in these months is to suppress the urge to go sightseeing at active fires and let the firefighters and volunteers do their work. It’s also a good idea not to light that braai (barbecue) fire if its windy and you find yourself holidaying anywhere near the Western Cape’s delicately beautiful open scrubland.
30 January 2024 - Residents were evacuated from the small coastal towns of Pringle Bay near Cape Town in the Overstrand district as firefighters battled wildfires that swept down from surrounding mountains and burnt out of control. Photographer: Stefan Weiss
South African writer, photographer and editor Russel Wasserfall has worked in the media space for over 35 years. His work is mainly in the arenas of food and travel and has appeared in more than twenty books and dozens of magazines. Wasserfall has run bars and restaurants, including his award-winning South African restaurant The Table at De Meye, and consults to restaurant start-ups on innovative food concepts. He runs a weekly podcast on the restaurant and food scene in his Cape Town home called A Table in the Corner.
