CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — Residents were evacuated from small coastal towns near Cape Town in South Africa as wildfires swept through the surrounding mountains and burned for a second day Tuesday.
Authorities have ordered the complete evacuation of Pringle Bay, a seaside town popular with tourists about 80 kilometers (50 miles) from Cape Town. People evacuated parts of the nearby town of Betty’s Bay on Monday.
Wildfires are not uncommon in the mountains around Cape Town and further down the coast during the South African summer, but it is uncommon for cities to be evacuated entirely.
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The fires started Monday and were fanned by hot, dry weather and strong coastal winds. Annelie Rabie, mayor of Overstrand Township that oversees the cities, said six wildfires had swept through the area. Four were contained or extinguished, he said, and one more is headed straight to Pringle Bay.
The Overstrand government said a small number of homes had been destroyed. No injuries were reported, but the government issued a code red; The fires posed a serious and immediate danger to other people and property.
Around 95% of a nearby nature reserve had also burned, the government said.
Residents of Pringle Bay were moving to a nearby town, local authorities said, while firefighters battled to get remaining fires under control. Helicopters were scooping up water from the ocean and dumping it on the fires, a common tactic in the region.
Bushfires have swept through many parts of South Africa’s Western Cape province in recent weeks, with one added this weekend on the slopes of the well-known Table Mountain, overlooking Cape Town.
The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment said its firefighting teams were working on bushfires in four areas of the Western Cape. A fire had been burning for nine days.
A massive fire tore through Table Mountain in 2021, causing severe damage and taking days to extinguish.
The main causes of wildfires are discarded cigarettes, other people lighting kitchen fires or burning debris, and arson, according to the local government of the Western Cape. Coastal winds stoke fires and can make them unpredictable.
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AP Africa news: https://apnews.com/hub/africa
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