• Mountain Fire

On Old Year’s Night at a party in Mooi Uitsig Village a man sent off a flare to greet the New Year. Unfortunately he didn’t stop to think that it would land somewhere in the fynbos which is very dry just now, this being Summer.

An enormous fire resulted which burned out of control for 11 days destroying over 12 000 hectares of land. The superb firefighting teams from all over the Western Cape were severely hampered by strong winds which made it impossible for the helicopters to fly and dangerous work to battle the fire.

The fence around the playground was under threat at Pikkewyntjies which doesn’t seem much but it would have meant finding a huge sum of money to replace the fence and the loss of years of growth of the shrubs that protect the children from the wind in winter.

The area around Mooi Uitsig was burned and tragically parts of the village itself. The man responsible for the disaster is currently in custody.