One of the worst fires to hit the Cape Town since 2005 is wrecking havoc on the slopes of Muizenberg and Noordhoek mountains. The blaze has engulfed 3000 hectares of natural vegetation so far but has endangered many lives and forced hundreds to evacuate their homes. By late Monday afternoon, the fire had reached the outskirts of Hout Bay.

The City of Cape Town’s JP Smith said five houses have been destroyed in the area thus far and fire-fighters fought the blaze throughout the night to prevent any further damage to property.

Smith said the fire has been devastating and at the moment they have declared the area a code red situation. 300 fire-fighters and 28 fire engines are trying to prevent the fire from spreading and causing any more damage.

“One of our senior fire-fighters has been at an explosion at the luxury Tintswalo Atlantic Lodge below Chapman’s Peak Drive while trying to save the facility,” said Smith.

Sanparks spokesperson Merle Collins said it is too early to assess the extent of the damage, as it is a long fire line ranging from Noordhoek all the way to Boyes drive in Muizenberg.

“It does not look like we are going to contain this fire today or tomorrow. It looks as though this fire is going to be raging for the next few days, because the area is huge that it covers,” said Collins.

Collins said that although Fynbos needs to burn to spurn new growth the inferno has caused a lot of damage and because of the threats on the slopes; they have been forced to close down both gates to the Silvermine Nature Reserve. VOC (Imogen Vollenhoven)