2009 Table Mountain Fire

2009 Table Mountain Fire

The Table Mountain fire was a large fire in and around the Table Mountain National Park in Cape Town, South Africa. It broke out at approximately 20:30 on 17 March 2009 in the vicinity of Rhodes Memorial and initial fears were that the fire would spread to UCT's Upper Campus. The Table Mountain National Park quickly deployed firefighting personals on the mountain, but the fire quickly spread due to the strong winds. At around 23:20 on Tuesday evening, the fire started moving up Devil's Peak and by 00:00 was at the tip and making its way around the mountain to the suburbs of Tamboerskloof, Oranjezicht, Vredehoek and Gardens on the north side. The flames were engulfing the mountain and the huge amounts of smoke made it hard for rescue and fire-fighting helicopters from making their way to the fire. By 00:30, people from the aforementioned areas were told to evacuate due to the strong winds pushing the fire quickly around the mountain. By this time, Fire & Rescue Services had deployed 29 fire engines and 90 firefighters all of whom were being assisted by 45 firefighters from the South African National Parks and volunteers of Disaster Management

The day following the fire, four helicopters, including a defence force Atlas Oryx, were called in at dawn to water-bomb the fire, and to lift a team of firefighters high onto the mountain. Park fire chief Philip Prins said about 500 hectares of park land had been burned: some fynbos, some renosterveld, some grass, and stands of pine trees.