This is according to the General Manager of the Free State Umbrella Body for Fire Protection Associations, Thinus Steenkamp. He says teams have been deployed daily to various parts of the province to battle runaway veld fires. 

Steenkamp says about 3000 hectares were destroyed in a fire in Reitz recently, which also saw people injured in a collision between two bakkies. He says farmers were busy with a back-burn but had to flee when the wind suddenly changed direction and collided in the thick smoke. 

Steenkamp confirmed there were other fires in Senekal, Dewetsdorp, Clarens, Rouxville and Winburg, adding that firefighting teams from Mangaung area are also being dispatched daily. 

He says there is a ban on burning of camps or making of any other fires until such time as the heat wave has passed and there is rainfall of at least 25mm.

Meanwhile the Chairperson of the Dewetsdorp Fire Protection Association, Johann Breytenbach, told OFM News conditions are very dry:

“There have been quite a number of fires all over the Free State over the last couple of days and the fire weather is not letting up. It’s been very, very serious fire weather, the Fire Danger Index has been in the high orange and in the red. 

“So it’s been extreme fire weather continuously now for the last two weeks and it doesn’t seem as if it’s going to let up shortly.”

*Johann Breytenbach – extreme fire weather

Both Breytenbach and Steenkamp say a lot of the fires are being caused by lightning strikes. Steenkamp is urging landowners and farmers to monitor and contain such fires to prevent the spread to other properties.

Sabrina Dean and Refilwe Gaeswe/OFM News