The 2023 fire season has the potential to become very severe in the Free State.
According to Johann (Savage) Breytenbach from the Mangaung Fire Protection Association (Mafpa), the good rainfall of three consecutive years, lead to very good growing seasons that caused an extreme fuel load. “Lots of plant material is available to burn right now.”
He says the extreme fuel loads are evident in the high quantity of green fires experienced throughout summer that increased in late autumn as rainfall decreased and the plants started to dry out.
Mafpa presented a Provincial Wildfire Expo on Friday, 21 April at Be Human on the farm Middelwater.
During the expo, Working on Fire did a live water drop from a helicopter onto a fire before several demonstrations on fire extinguishing tools were demonstrated.
The South African Weather Service seasonal predictions indicate that the winter is possibly going to be warmer than normal, while internationally climatologists indicate that the La Nina weather phenomena has a more than 50% chance of reappearing in the new summer season. La Nina is associated with hot, dry conditions in the Southern hemisphere that may cause a prolonged fire season that can extend well past the winter and early spring. High quantities of biomass, combined with hot and dry conditions is the recipe for fast spreading high intensity veldfires.
Breytenbach says wildfires, locally known as veldfires is not confined to rural areas and farms, the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) is internationally known as a major at-risk area where veldfires cause annual loss of life, and extensive property damage. Mangaung is no exception and every year multiple wildfires causes extensive damage in the peri-urban areas of Mangaung.
Fire Protection Associations are responsible to assist all categories of landowners and the community at large to better understand and manage their wildfire risks. Mafpa is the only registered Fire Protection Association in the greater Mangaung Metro area and advises that people must prepare early to protect themselves against veldfires.
- Ensure that homes and homesteads as well as any commercial building has defensible space around it by removing all burnable materials and dead plants for at least 3-5 m from the building, then thin out any possible ladder fuels and high volumes of plant materials for another 10-20 m.
- Remove overgrown vegetation from pathways and entrances.
- Remove dead leaves and vegetation from gutters.
- Some properties are legally obliged to have fire breaks in place as well as trained personnel and equipment to fight veldfires. Check with the FPA on legal requirements.
- Develop a veldfire Management Plan and implement it. The FPA can also help in this regard.
- Know what the Fire Danger rating for the day is and act accordingly. The FPA distributes multi-day FDI to members, but SAWS publishes the FDI on a daily basis.
Breytenbach ask people to refrain from going to veldfires unless they are part of the Mafpa Wildfire Volunteers who has been dispatched to assist.
“Veldfires are extremely dangerous and annually causes severe injury and several deaths. We understand that people want to assist, but unless you are working as part of a team who are trained and equipped to deal with the situation, it is better to stay away. Freelancers and fire tourists endanger themselves and others.”
People can join Mafpa online at www.mafpa.co.za.
