Local News
Fire under control near Ficksburg─── MARK STEENBOK 11:08 Sat, 09 Sep 2017
Ficksburg - A team of 25 firefighters have been deployed to attend to a veld fire on a farm at Ficksburg in the Eastern Free State.
Working on Fire (WoF) spokesperson, Wayne Mokhethi, says the WOF Ficksburg team have been trying to suppress the fire at Rensburghoek since 07:30 this morning but that the fire is currently not out of control.
Mokhethi adds that they have attended to five fires across the province since yesterday.
“Yesterday WOF was dispatched to attend five fires across the province. There were fires in Thaba Nchu, Bloemfontein, Warden, Vrede, and Ficksburg. All these fires were contained. This morning’s fire is not out of control and the team will contain the fire soon,” says Mokhethi.
Last month an estimated total of 40 000 hectares of veld across the Free State were destroyed by fires.
The South African Weather Service earlier issued a fire warning due to high temperatures in North West and the Northern Cape.
The Department of Environmental Affairs' Working on Fire programme has been kept busy during the past five weeks as more than 4 000 firefighters stationed at 170 bases across South Africa fought 500 wildfires since 1 August.
OFM News
Working on Fire (WoF) spokesperson Wayne Mokhethi:
