Phew, What a Scorcher!
On Sunday evening, the 7th of February, after a weekend away, I received a call from Pretoria asking about the fires in Franschhoek. Assuming it was a prank call by some demented relative, I dismissed the caller and hung up. When the follow-up call didn’t materialise I wondered if, just perhaps, there was merit to the question. A Tweet asking for clarity remained unanswered. The Net was silent and I assumed that everything was under control. How wrong can one person be?
I bumped into local landscaper, Sue Norman, at lunchtime on Monday to find her buying a number of loaves of bread. As her son is at ‘varsity, the quantity of food seemed a little strange. When I quizzed her she said “I’m off to make sarmies for Lodine and the Lions ladies, for the fire-fighters.” When the Lions start to supply food to the fire-fighters, you know things are getting serious. By Monday night the fires that had been raging in Jonkershoek had reached the Hottentots Holland Nature Reserve and had descended the mountain into the Franschhoek Valley. But the village was ready. Fire-protection crews from Franschhoek, Stellenbosch, Paarl and Somerset West were joined by others from Cape Town and a large number of local farmers, armed with water containers hitched to their tractors, in a stand of defiance against 30m high flames that spanned hundreds of meters at times.
“Everyone pulled together to help each other out,” said Nick Davies, in a statement to the press. By rights Nick’s Franschhoek Pass Winery should have been raised, save for the direct efforts of his neighbours and indirectly the teams who fought the fires in other parts of the valley. The heat, strong winds and the presence of dry vegetation meant that what started as a single blaze, presumably started by workers in Jonkershoek, soon became multiple fires that each needed considerable attention.
Nick can see the humour in it though. “The famous George Meyer (whose eyebrows are larger than he is) rushed headlong into the fire to help us,” he says, “only to emerge with a somewhat smoother profile!” On the night the noise of exploding pine trees on his wine farm sounded a lot like the popping of champagne corks. Doug Gurr, of Pam Golding Estates Franschhoek, had reason to celebrate when, in the heat of the action, a bakkie pulled up carrying the Pam Golding-sponsored Try Again soccer team. Without question or instruction the young men went straight to work to help their friend and mentor.
Guesthouses in the village made rooms available to accommodate displaced land owners, staff and guests and despite the thick smoke and oppressive heat kept cool heads and offered the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel to those in need. John Dendy Young, who has recently been at the receiving-end of a double hip replacement, captured the spirit of the community in a typically selfless act of service. A resident in the village, John was aware that some of the visitors booked in at La Petite Ferme’s guest suites up on the hill, were dining in the village unaware that the fire was threatening their accommodation and possessions. Without hesitation he collected them from the restaurant, drove them to the guest suites, helped them collect their things and then arranged alternative accommodation for them. A witness to the event suggests that John took on Schwarzenegger-like proportions as he stepped fearlessly in and out of the flames.
To John, and everyone who helped, thank you and thanks to Ian Puttkammer for the photos.
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I bumped into local landscaper, Sue Norman, at lunchtime on Monday to find her buying a number of loaves of bread. As her son is at ‘varsity, the quantity of food seemed a little strange. When I quizzed her she said “I’m off to make sarmies for Lodine and the Lions ladies, for the fire-fighters.” When the Lions start to supply food to the fire-fighters, you know things are getting serious. By Monday night the fires that had been raging in Jonkershoek had reached the Hottentots Holland Nature Reserve and had descended the mountain into the Franschhoek Valley. But the village was ready. Fire-protection crews from Franschhoek, Stellenbosch, Paarl and Somerset West were joined by others from Cape Town and a large number of local farmers, armed with water containers hitched to their tractors, in a stand of defiance against 30m high flames that spanned hundreds of meters at times.
“Everyone pulled together to help each other out,” said Nick Davies, in a statement to the press. By rights Nick’s Franschhoek Pass Winery should have been raised, save for the direct efforts of his neighbours and indirectly the teams who fought the fires in other parts of the valley. The heat, strong winds and the presence of dry vegetation meant that what started as a single blaze, presumably started by workers in Jonkershoek, soon became multiple fires that each needed considerable attention.
Nick can see the humour in it though. “The famous George Meyer (whose eyebrows are larger than he is) rushed headlong into the fire to help us,” he says, “only to emerge with a somewhat smoother profile!” On the night the noise of exploding pine trees on his wine farm sounded a lot like the popping of champagne corks. Doug Gurr, of Pam Golding Estates Franschhoek, had reason to celebrate when, in the heat of the action, a bakkie pulled up carrying the Pam Golding-sponsored Try Again soccer team. Without question or instruction the young men went straight to work to help their friend and mentor.
Guesthouses in the village made rooms available to accommodate displaced land owners, staff and guests and despite the thick smoke and oppressive heat kept cool heads and offered the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel to those in need. John Dendy Young, who has recently been at the receiving-end of a double hip replacement, captured the spirit of the community in a typically selfless act of service. A resident in the village, John was aware that some of the visitors booked in at La Petite Ferme’s guest suites up on the hill, were dining in the village unaware that the fire was threatening their accommodation and possessions. Without hesitation he collected them from the restaurant, drove them to the guest suites, helped them collect their things and then arranged alternative accommodation for them. A witness to the event suggests that John took on Schwarzenegger-like proportions as he stepped fearlessly in and out of the flames.
To John, and everyone who helped, thank you and thanks to Ian Puttkammer for the photos.
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