Residents of the major South African tourist destination were forced to flee as the flames edged towards crowded neighbourhoods on Sunday. A Cape Town fire service spokesman told News 24 that 70 firefighters and 20 trucks were fighting the blaze. The fire was also close to the suburbs of Signal Hill and Seapoint.
Turkish citizen Soner Hosadam said: “I was sleeping the whole afternoon and then I saw the fire around 5pm.
“At first I thought it was raining because it was foggy outside. And then I realised that it was hell because it was smelling so bad and I struggled to breathe. The smoke was so bad, I threw up a couple of times. The smoke filled my flat and I packed a few things and left with my friends.”
Having evacuated north, he said: “I could still see the fire from there. I came back after I heard on the radio that the properties were safe and there were a number of firefighters and helicopters preventing the fire from coming to the properties.”
Cape Town councillor JP Smith explained: “It is alleged that the fire was started by a vagrant but we did see fire starting in close proximity, very quickly. There is a possibility that it was purposeful.
Cape Town has been experiencing severe drought conditions for several years.
In early 2018, it almost ran out of water altogether in an event forecast as ‘Day Zero’ – when the taps would stop running.
Sisa Ntshona, chief executive of South African Tourism, warned:“We have recovered from the drought.
“However, we really want to share our lessons with the world around climate change issues.
“Drought is not a matter of ‘if’, it is a matter of ‘when’ in major cities around the world.