Table Mountain: Fire rages forcing roads to close and Cape Town under threat
- A massive fire is threatening the City of Cape Town and has forced major roads to close
- The fire started on Sunday afternoon and soon engulfed Devil's Peak and quickly spread down Table Mountain
- The fire has reached the outskirts of the city and is dangerously close to the University of Cape Town
PAY ATTENTION: Click “See First” under the “Following” tab to see Briefly.co.za News on your News Feed!
A massive fire is raging on Table Mountain and has already damaged a cafe and buildings as it spread past the Rhodes Memorial.
The M3 highway was closed to prevent traffic from entering the city as the fire spreads towards the major artery into the city.
Firefighters are fighting the blaze by land and air in an attempt to get the wildfire under control before it reaches the city. The fire started sometime on Sunday afternoon and soon spread down from Devil's Peak.
Source: Twitter
Social media has been inundated with posts of people escaping the blaze and reporting where it is spreading.
@LisLombard:
"I think my car has been destroyed as I cannot reach Rhodes Memorial and think I managed to outrun the fire -can anyone tell me if the cars at Rhodes Memorial are safe and where do I need to run to get away from the fire? Newlands Forest?"
The fire grew exponentially and with hours it is now threatening the University of Cape Town.
@Jaleel_v_S:
"Some footage of the forest fire in Cape Town from my window in Obz Square #CapeTown #mountainfire"
@realSindiso:
"Visuals of the forest fire from Upper Campus. #CapeTown #mountainfire."
@rocoetzee:
"Please pray for Cape Town."
@tonelew:
"Video from a friend watching the fire raging on #TableMountain waiting to hear if he’ll need to evacuate his #CapeTown home."
Earlier, Briefly News reported that a fire had ripped through the Charlotte Maxeke hospital on Friday night and as a result, patients were evacuated.
David Makhuru, Premier of Gauteng, has declared that the hospital will shut down.
400 patients were evacuated following the blaze, 270 patients are still in the hospital awaiting their evacuation. The patients have been distributed to other hospitals throughout South Africa according to IOL.
In a similar story, the last thing the country and its already ailing power supply company Eskom needed was for one of its power plants to catch fire - unfortunately, this is exactly what happened this Friday afternoon.
According to various clips that have been circulating on social media, a conveyer belt at Eskom's Kendal Power Station in Mpumalanga caught fire and caused an understandable wave of fear and disaster in the area.
Following clips of the video being shared on Twitter, Eskom released a statement to assure locals that power delivery will not be affected by the fire. According to the power utility company, the conveyer belt will be replaced. They also reported that there were no injuries as a result of the fire.
Enjoyed reading our story? Download BRIEFLY's news app on Google Play now and stay up-to-date with major South African news!
Source: Briefly News
