UPDATE: Shots allegedly fired before Bird park fire
Resident: The poor birds and the beautiful area is now suffering the consequences.
There seems to be more than meets the eye but it is still unclear what exactly caused the fire which erupted at the Con Joubert Bird park in the early hours of Friday morning.
This morning at about 3am a cloud of smoke filled the air at the Bird park. The main fire is believed to be at the reeds, close to the water. The damage to the Bird park is at this stage not yet known and the owners of the Bird park could not be reached.
Once the Herald got on scene the West Rand Fire brigade already was extinguishing the blaze. Leon Kruger, a fireman said he is not sure what caused the fire but it would take approximately an hour to control.
Before the fire started, Christo Myburg, a reaction officer of the Mapogo Security Group said,
We investigated a noise coming from the reeds in the wetlands. You could clearly hear a man crawling in-between the reeds. Police were called in to assist in the matter and shots were fired but the suspect got away.”
The Randfontein Police is yet to comment on the matter.
DA Councillor of Ward 7, Craig Harrison does not think the two incidents are linked and predicts the fire started at around 7am. He added that when he drove past the Bird park, he only observed a small fire – this is approximately four hours after workers of the Bird park told the Herald on scene the fire started at 3.
A resident, Amanda Havenga-Jordaan explained to the Herald, “When I drove past there this morning at about 6am, I only saw a small fire. I can not understand why the fire truck passed me and did not go to the scene immediately. The damage caused would not have been so bad. The poor birds and the beautiful area is now suffering the consequences.”
The Con Joubert Bird park is the only suburban wetland in Randfontein and it is a sanctuary to residents of the area. There are 250 species of wild birds that attracts a lot of people who likes bird-watching.
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