Western Cape on red alert as fires rage

Three people have been killed in yet another fire in the Cape Peninsula. Police have confirmed that a woman and two teenagers have burnt to death in a fire in Khayelitsha. The blaze began in the early hours of this morning and spread rapidly in the strong wind. The cause of the fire is still not known. Another fire is burning in Nyanga at this time.

Last night, panic stricken residents of Llandudno on the Atlantic seaboard of the Cape Peninsula began fleeing from their homes as a fire swept through the fynbos in the area. The fire started in the Oudekraal area shortly after midnight and was soon whipped up out of control by the strong southeasterly wind. Early this morning it was feared that the flames could sweep in on Camps Bay and Victoria Road from Hout Bay has been closed to traffic.

Meanwhile, weary fire fighters have had their hands full since yesterday when a number of fires broke out in the Peninsula, on the West Coast and in the Boland. By late last night it appeared that the dangerous fire above Kommetjie had been brought under control. A spokesperson for the Cape Town Fire Department told NewsFlash the fire had been water bombed until late and houses in the area had been saved. A fire next to the N-Seven motorway near Dassenberg north of Cape Town badly damaged a factory and a house yesterday. And in Bain’s Kloof in the Boland a group of campers had to flee for their lives when a run-away fire threatened the area.