Hundreds of livestock die as veld fires ravage the Free State  

Farmers in eastern Free State are picking up the pieces after recent fires devasted their communities.

At least nine fires of various causes swept through the province on 27 September, less than a week after snow had blanketed the area.

Calls for disaster relief have been answered and provincial leaders are coordinating efforts to lighten the immense financial and human load.

Livestock dead and equipment destroyed

The areas affected lie just west of Newcastle over the KwaZulu-Natal border and stretch roughly 50kms north-west and south-west either side of Memel.

The Freedom Front Plus’ Free State provincial leader Jan van Niekerk told The Citizen that sadly, one woman was killed after failing to escape a runaway blaze.

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The economic backbone of the area has been gutted, with hundreds of sheep and cattle killed and millions of rands worth of farmer equipment destroyed. 

Additionally, grass needed for grazing and the winter’s harvest of hay bails were reduced to ash.

Disaster relief needed

Van Niekerk praised Free State MEC for Agriculture and Environmental Affairs Elzabé Rockman for a prompt response in securing temporary relief.

Applications have been made with the provincial Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) to declare the farms a disaster area to amplify assistance.

The cause of the fires varies, from the wind blowing embers off a smouldering fire to an instance where villagers allegedly started a fire to burn a snake they had caught.  

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Van Niekerk said the causes of the fires were not malicious but questioned the effectiveness of local fire brigades.

“The fires made it clearly evident that the district municipalities’ fire-fighting services are not up to standard and cannot provide the required assistance,” stated Van Niekerk.

“The party will ask the relevant Portfolio Committee in the Free State Legislature to investigate the shortcomings of district municipalities’ disaster management plans,” he added.

Van Niekerk said accountability would come after the relief efforts, and extended his condolences to the farmers and their families.

Causes of veld fires

Other than human negligence, veld fires can be caused by rock falls and even spontaneous combustion, Free State Umbrella Fire Protection Association General Manager Savage Breytenbach told The Citizen.

Moving rocks can collide, providing a spark to ignite fire and while very rare, tightly packed hay bails in very high temperatures have been known to catch fire without an external heat source, explains Breytenbach.

He added that success was weather-dependent but aided by effective communication and strategy.

“With very difficult whether conditions like we saw in Memel, it can be very dangerous. Close collaboration and coordination by everyone involved and knowing where to contain the fire is vital,” Breytenbach said.

Fire Danger Index in Free State

The South African Weather Service has a Fire Danger Index (FDI) that gauges the conditions for runaway fires.

On the day of the fires, the FDI for the Memel area was orange, or level four out of five. Over half of the areas of the Free State were at the maximum red warning.

Milder weather in recent days reduced much of the warnings to green, with no areas in the Free State exceeding the orange warning on the final day of September.