Hell on the Helderberg

I realise that this is a bit late...

Saturday, 16 April 2011

Swirling smoke rises into the sky, obscuring the sun and giving everything an orange glow. The source; a raging fire on the Helderberg Mountain.



Curious person that I am, I went to investigate, and I was shocked at how much of the Nature Reserve was going up in flames. Fire engines, Police cars and Traffic Cops were everywhere, and crowds of people had parked on the side of the road near the dam at the base of the Reserve in order to watch.

Minutes after arriving (12:20), I heard the tell-tale ‘wap, wap, wap’ of the Huey. ZS-HBU, based at Stellenbosch airfield, came through the Helderberg Gap and immediately set to work.

Twenty minutes later, a Kamov came along to join in the fun, and the two choppers set about bombing the flames closest to the residential area. The fire extended from the bottom of the Reserve, to the very top of the Helderberg Mountain. The strong south easterly winds were pushing it towards the western slopes of the Helderberg.

After 40 minutes, I left and I had no intention of coming back. But while sitting at home, I heard the drone of two Dromader’s as they flew low over the houses towards the fire. As I had never seen a Dromader in action before, I decided to go back.



In the space of about an hour, two more choppers had arrived on scene, and the fire had spread. But what was interesting is that it was moving east; into wind. In a way the wind was good; the fire progressed very slowly towards the east, but unfortunately it was still moving west, and it was making its way to the Stellenbosch side of the Helderberg Mountain.

Just after 15:00, another chopper arrived and landed on one of Beaumont’s fields to quickly get the Bambi bucket out. The aerial support now consisted of five Choppers, two Spotters and three Bombers.

The main focus was obviously on protecting the residential areas, but after bombing the area intensely for several hours, two of the choppers, as well as the Bombers, began bombing the line of fire that was slowly moving east.



I left at about 17:00 and made my way to the Stellenbosch Airfield. It was scary to see how much the fire had spread on the northern side of the mountain. A line of flames steadily made its way down the mountain to vineyards and forests. The rising smoke reminded me of a mushroom cloud forms after an atom bomb has been dropped.

Come 18:30, the aerial support was forced to leave. After many hours of hard work the various fire crews had managed to extinguish the majority of the flames on the southern side of the mountain. But despite the best efforts of Working on Fire, VWS (Volunteer Wildfire Services), and the Fire Department, the fire continued to burn throughout the night on the Stellenbosch side of the mountain, and parts were still burning by Sunday afternoon.

On Monday, a friend and I surveyed the damage from the air. It was as if we were looking at another planet; the black and brown ground, blackened rocks and the shell of a house, its walls blackened, stared us in the face. Large expanses of forest and Fynbos had simply vanished.



Patches of ground were still smoldering, and the forests that hadn’t been completely obliterated were merely clumps of trees here and there. It was surreal to see how many houses were surrounded by burnt ground, but their walls seemed to have been untouched by the flames, some of them even had beautiful green patches of grass.

On Saturday, I witnessed a community coming together. Traffic Cops, and members of the Helderberg Crime Watch worked together to block roads and redirect traffic. Police and Traffic Cops kept the public at bay and made sure that onlookers didn’t park in the way of the fire crews. VWS (Volunteer Wildfire Services) managed to get in on the action, and their volunteers did what they could to help. The members of the Fire Department did a sterling job. Working on Fire helped by having two Spotters (Spotters 1 and 5), four Huey’s (ZS-HBU, ZS-HBV, ZS-HLA, ZU-RAS), and three Bombers (Bombers 5, 6 and 9, with Bomber 7 making an appearance) tackle the fire. Titan Helicopter’s Kamov ZS-PXU with it’s massive 3000l Bambi Bucket joined in on the fun as well.



It’s the first time I’ve witnessed five helicopters and several Bombers fighting a single fire, and I believe that that is an indication of just how serious it was. Seeing the air and ground crews working together was something to behold (watching the choppers as they picked up and dropped water was better than watching any airshow display). Along with all those that were on the fire line, we must remember those that worked behind the scenes and collected and delivered food and water to the ground crews (I’m sure it was greatly appreciated).

Now, then, what was the cause of this? They said it was a controlled burning of a fire-break that got out of control. I think not; who burns a fire-break in strong wind, at the end of the fire season?