Fire season alert

Fire season alert

Writer Hedda Mittner

Several wildfires broke out in the Overberg over the weekend, including in Barrydale, Masakhane near Gansbaai, and the farming area at Solitaire/ Tesselaarsdal.

Sadly an EPWP firefighter, Nelio van Rooy, lost his life on Sunday in the Barrydale fire, which had spread rapidly into the mountain area. Overberg Fire Chief Reinard Geldenhuys expressed his condolences and said Van Rooy had died in the line of duty while serving his community.

The Barrydale fire had been raging for a week but the Greater Overberg FPA announced on Monday that cooler weather and intermittent rain during the night and most of the day had halted the spread of the fire. Active mopping up and monitoring continued on Monday, with a spotter plane waiting for the cloud cover over the mountain to lift in order to confirm that there was no longer any active fire on the top of the mountain.

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