Gamsberg ablaze
A veld fire that started on Wednesday last week at the foot of the Gamsberg, had still not been contained at the time of going to press last night.
According to Joachim Kranz, the fire was caused by a lightning strike on the farms Corona or Picadilli.
“The fire shifted into the mountain from the Namib's side. Since the grass is wet and green, the fire spread slowly and we didn't even realize it was burning at first. We only noticed the fire that afternoon when the wind picked up. We could not get to the flames because the area is inaccessible. The fire moved up the mountain from the west side and then split in two and spread to the south and northwest."
Kranz went up the mountain with another farmer and only then realised that the plateau had been burned to the ground.
“We were surprised when we saw it. Nobody even noticed. The infrastructure on top of the mountain was not damaged at all. The houses, MTC tower and solar panels are undamaged. We saw from above that the fire had split in two. The fire went down the mountain again on Tuesday and turned in Corona's direction again. It's up one mountainside on Wednesday and now down the other,” he said.
According to Sunja van Heerden, they could not start fighting the fire earlier because of the inaccessibility of the area. “We are now making firebreaks at the foot of the mountain. On Corona, the forefront of the fire stretched over about 10 kilometres on Tuesday. We are working on a firebreak down the Gamsberg on the east side, to prevent the fire from spreading further north and north-east.
“The fire is now also coming from the cliffs to the farm Weener and Gamsberg on the southeast. We also made larger firebreaks there, but on parts of Weener, we will have to wait until the fire moves down the mountain. It could happen sometime during the night.”
According to Piet van Rooyen, farmers came from as far as 80 kilometres away to help fight the fire.
“On Monday, we realised the extent of the fire for the first time and got together to decide what we could do.
“We were 14 vehicles and 100 people who gathered. We started climbing at 09:00 on Tuesday and were back by 12:00noonout having much success. We then started with firebreaks and worked through the night. On Tuesday morning, people were still busy with firebreaks to prevent the fire from spreading if the wind turns.” – [email protected]