Photo: Jacques van Rensburg
Farmers are still counting the cost of wildfires that killed livestock, and destroyed more than 60 000ha of grazing and 4 500 bales of feed across the Free State in the space of a week, according to Free State Agriculture (FSA).
In the Petrus Steyn district, an estimated 11 500ha were destroyed by a fire that is believed to have started in a nearby township. Sakkie Bosman, safety coordinator for Free State Agriculture in the area, told Farmer’s Weekly that the entire community had rallied together to fight the blaze which started on the afternoon of 17 August.
One farmer in the district, whom Bosman declined to name, had lost 100 sheep out of his flock of 126 in the fire. Elsewhere in the province up to 50 head of cattle died in the blaze.
SAPS spokesperson, Captain Zweli Mohebeleli, was unable to confirm whether a woman from Petrus Steyn who died in Dihlabeng Hospital in Bethlehem on same day was victim of the fire as had been rumoured, but said an inquest docket had been opened.
According to a FSA statement, a fire in the Frankfort area on the same day burnt a 26km swathe along the N3. About 50 000ha were destroyed in the district, Thinus Steenkamp, chairperson of the Free State Umbrella Fire Protection Association (FSUFPA) said in the statement.
“A second fire that occurred in the Cornelia area on the same time, burnt [along a] 14km [stretch] before it could be brought under control. The damage caused by this fire is still being determined,” the statement said.
According to Steenkamp, seven fires blazed across the province at the same time, fuelled by strong winds of up to 46km/h.
