Central SA
Fire breaks out on UCT campus, doused within hours─── 11:10 Thu, 06 Jan 2022
A fire broke out at the University of Cape Town's (UCT) Upper Campus on Wednesday night. The fire, on a vacant field near the top dam, was doused within two hours.
In a statement, UCT said the fire posed "no danger to any human life" and was "very far from any buildings or infrastructure".
This is the second fire to affect the university in a year. In April 2021, a wildfire spread from Table Mountain, necessitating the evacuation of approximately 4 000 students. The fire gutted the HM Pearson, Fuller and Jagger Library buildings.
On Wednesday, the fire was reported around 23:30 by patrolling UCT Campus Protection Services (CPS) officers.
"The fire services department was on site within 15 minutes and the fire was declared fully doused by 01:45 on Thursday morning," the statement read.
"After the fire was completely doused, overnight measures were put in place in the unlikely event of the fire reigniting."
There was no indication of the cause of the fire, UCT said.
"An investigation will follow, and a formal report will be drafted and tabled through the relevant internal channels."
The City of Cape Town's Fire and Rescue Service had not commented at the time of publication.
