The Eden District Municipality said that four people are reported to have died and many houses in Phantom Pass at Rheenendal, near Knysna, destroyed as fires continue to rage along the Garden Route.
In its latest update early Wednesday evening, the District Municipality said that three people died as a dirct result of the fires, while another person died of a heart attack, “presumably agitated by the current conditions in the area.
A farm worker, his wife and their son perished in the Rheenendal fire.
“Currently the fires in and around Knysna still burn out of control, fanned by gale force North Westerly winds; ground teams have been struggling to contain the fires,” the District Municipality said.
“The fire has jumped the N2 near the Buffelsbaai turn-off, leading to the closure of the N2 at this point as well. The section near Kruisfontein, outside Knysna, on-route to Plett still remain close as well but in this section the fire has been brought under control.”
“Confirmation has been received in terms of the following assistance, currently being dispatched from throughout the Province to assist in Knysna:
· 8 additional WOF teams to arrive in Knysna overnight as well as tomorrow morning (approximately 160 people);
· 2 medium tankers and one strike unit from the Overberg DM to arrive in Knysna later tonight;
. The City of Cape Town will assemble a team to come and assist from tomorrow;
· The SANDF has been placed on standby by the Provincial Disaster Management Centre to assist in Knysna, weather permitting;
“Due to the fires all telephone communication to the Knysna Municipality has been lost, some areas are experiencing power outages as well,” said the Eden District Municipality.
“Belvedere and the Western Heads are being evacuated, areas close to Brenton on Sea has been evacuated to the beach. The elderly are being evacuated to the Mont Old age home and the Chris Hani community Hall in Dam se Bos is used to accommodate evacuated people.”
The Municipality said that the fires at Hooggekraal, (Karatara) is being dealt with by Sedgefield fire Services.
“Fire is out of control and there are still houses in danger an unidentified number of houses have been lost.”
Fire chief Clinton Manual said that the” fire is totally out of control, the N2 remains closed and an unidentified number of houses have been lost in the fire and some houses are still in danger-people have been evacuated.”
Meanwhile, Kouga Municipality said its fire teams managed to stop a large veld fire from spreading towards built-up farm areas between Humansdorp and Oyster Bay on Wednesday.
Executive mayor, Elza van Lingen, said an earlier evacuation alert had been cancelled.
She said several small bush fires were brought under control while fire-fighting teams were sent to Longmore Forest to "assist the Longmore MTO" with a fire at the plantation.
In Nelson Mandela Bay fire-fighters were also called in to action to battle several fires in the Greenbushes area, Van Staden's gorge and another big fire in the Draaifontein Road area.
Fire chief, Andre' de Ridder, said the fires were being fanned by strong winds.
