• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

All Gone Up in Flames (1 Viewer)

I live in Somerset West, a relatively small town outside of Cape Town, my place is situated on the corner of the local nature reserve, which is where I do most of my bird watching, and while there are other areas around which offer similar vegetation and habitats the nature reserve is a great place due to the fact that it's about 2 minutes away and that it's safe and secure.

Unfortunately every year we have a few fires in the area, most of which get dealt with quite quickly, though this weekend was a different story.

I have special access to the nature reserve (helderberg nature reserve) which allows me to enter prior to opening, in the early mornings. This Saturday was my first time using this special gate key and I was inside at 6:30am, about 30 minutes before the sun showed signs of rising. I was the only person in the nature reserve for about an hour and when the sun came up it was like any other good sunny day, I spotted some malachite sunbirds, some with breeding plumage, a lesser double collared sunbird, sacred ibis and some other birds.

Though on my exiting the nature reserve at about 9:30am, I looked back and saw that there was a small fire on the helderberg nature reserve. When I got home I called the fire department and they told me they were aware of the fire and tending to it. An hour later I looked again and it was a disaster, winds were now at about 60km/h and fanning the fire across the area where I had just been walking.

It took no more than 5 hours for the fire to engulf majority of the helderberg nature reserve. The very same fynbos plants that I had just been spotting the sunbirds were burning quickly. I watched as 5 helicopters were working on the fire, along with 19 fire trucks and volunteer assistance. I saw some Jackal Buzzards circling over their nests which were now also engulfed in flames.

As I type this, the fire has been burning for 36 hours, and in that time, about 70% of the Nature Reserve where all my photos were taken, has burnt down, along with 15 or more homes and the fire continues to rage now on the other side of the mountain, thankfully the winds dropped which spread the speed of the fire, though it still cannot be stopped.

It is still quite unreal to me, thousands and thousands of protea plants and other fynbos gone in a matter of hours. The bird life, which is usually so great - has been annihilated. It will be about a year before the first real plans begin to emerge and then at least 3 to 5 years for the proteas to regrow properly. We deal with fires here often as I said, but this is a lot worse and a lot more has been taken. It's a big blow for local birders and a heart breaking time.

I must give full appreciation and respect to the fire fighters who have been on duty for 2 days now and who were flying 5 helicopters at the same time, filling up 3 at a time in a single dam, leaving a tiny margin for error.

For more information and images, you can check out my site which I'm updated as new information emerges: http://www.stormchasing.co.za/index.php/articles-and-news/189-16-april-helderberg-fire
 
Warning! This thread is more than 13 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top