'I thought I would give an update to friends and family on yesterday's events. We noticed a fire on the farm just after 7am and Lucio went to asses. We immediately started fighting it with the tractor that has a water tank and hose as well as physically beating out the flames. It appears that someone (most likely poachers passing through) had lit the fire as it was in a circle working outwards on the inside of our firebreaks with our neighbour Bongani. At that stage their was very little wind and it was blowing away from our houses, we let all our neighbours know as the grass was exceptionally dry and pretty thick and long. The fire moved down into the valley and as it started moving up the other side, which is all inaccessible by vehicle, the wind started picking up. Dino and Lucio took both tractors to meet the fire at the top of the valley, while Peter, Charlie and I waited for the fire to reach the short grass to put it out. The wind had really picked up by then and changed direction, SAPPI arrived with two firefighting trucks and about 15 firefighters, we are always so relieved to see them as water power and man power is king in grass fires.
They drove up to join Dino and Lucio who were retreating by this stage as the flames were massive and heading to our houses. Lucio phoned me to go home and start watering the lawn. I raced back home and got the dogs inside, let the donkeys out of their field and started to turn all the outside hoses on. The 2 SAPPI trucks were heading in my direction while they tried to douse the flames, there was a wall of flames coming down the hill towards us all. The next thing I just heard screaming and wailing and people running towards our garden, one of the trucks also came in. The fire had reached our fence and was burning through into the garden, I was running around trying to put it out. One of the men that had come in with the other crew was lying on the lawn and the lady firefighters were crying and on the phone. I came over to check on him and could see he had been badly burnt, I tried to calm the crew and told them to get their first aid kit and start administering first aid while I called the ambulance. While I was on the phone they were telling me others had got burnt that were still out there on the hill, I told the emergency people to send a few ambulances. I was then told that some people were dead! After cutting the clothes off the firefighter, his entire body was burnt and skin was hanging off, including his face. He was in so much pain, it was dreadful to see. There was also one woman on the hill whose clothes had burnt off her but she was still alive. The ambulances arrived and then police, SAPPI, investigators, our mayor, more police etc. I believe the ambulance met a helicopter on the main road to transport a patient to hospital and 4 others who were also critical were taken by ambulance. 3 people died on the hill and we heard last night that 3 more had died in hospital. We are waiting to hear how the remaining 2 people are. What a sad sad day.
We carried on fighting the fire to protect the donkeys shelter, by that stage to the fire engine had arrived and they came and helped there. Also the fire bomber planes with a spotter plane had started dropping water on the fire. The fire had gone over the hill to the Mitchell's as well as Busters next door. Dino and Lucio carried on until about 4.30pm.
Our plastic water pipes from our tanks had also got burnt so we had no water to fill up the fire fighters, so Lucio started fixing those too. Reece and his partner who had arrived earlier to help, got stuck in and helped replumb so we had water. Thankfully our tanks survived.
There were so many people who came to help as well as news channels who wanted to report the story, I just couldn't deal with speaking to them. Chris Pappas, our mayor, came to assess the damage and offer his condolences to the deceased and offer the municipality's support for feed for animals as there is absolutely no grazing left.
Carmen's parents offered to bring us a meal and drinking water as we weren't sure how long it would take to fix the pipes and fighting fires is very thirsty work.
We are so grateful for all the help on such a tragic day, I wonder if the person who started it will be found and held accountable? Every year we have this problem of people lighting fires, and most of the time we manage to contain it safely. I also wonder how the wildlife fared, we saw many buck trying to escape. I saw 3 reedbuck later when I took a drive and we did hear the jackals at about 1am.
Today we will need to see what needs repairing and to see if any animals need help.' Di Santoro.
The KZN Midlands forests, plantations and grasslands have been ravaged by devastating wild fires this month, from the Karkloof last week to the Boston tragedies this past weekend and a number of smaller flare ups in between.
Communities are urged to take extreme care, to spread fire saftey awareness and avoid starting fires at all during this dry and windy season which will still be around for some months before we can expect Spring rainfall.
Photo credits: Di Santoro
