Fire on the Mountain

Parts of Cape Town were on edge yesterday evening after a minor fire near the top of Table Mountain - started by a British tourist who reportedly tossed a cigarette out his open car window - turned into a very big deal. One hiker died on the mountain, apparently of smoke inhalation, and the flames were creeping in two directions yesterday: down the slope toward a posh residential neighborhood that overlooks the city center, and over the top of a pass that leads to a beachside suburb called Camps Bay.

Table Mountain usually looks like this when viewed from the city, though I am not always in the foreground:



But this is what it looked like yesterday:







There still might be hikers who are missing, but the firefighters managed to keep teh fire from reaching any houses and the fire is under control now.

This all happened several miles from where we live, and around a bend in the mountain, so we couldn't see the flames out our front window. But we could see the smoke, and as the sun was setting behind the mountain yesterday, it was burning through the smoke with an amazing bright red intensity. Every once in awhile, a helicopter trailing a big water-carrying device went flying past the window. In fact, teh helicopters are still out today, putting out the last of it.

Further news reports from IOL here and News24 here. News 24 was the source of those pictures.