Morning has indeed broken with Cape Town shrouded in smoke from veld fires in Somerset West:
Fires in Somerset West have flared up again after being briefly brought under control, fire services said. Helicopters were unable to assist in fighting the fires because of the smoke clouds, platoon commander Clive Smidt told News24 on Monday morning.
The fire department had to rely on fire trucks to get the fires under control, he added. About 30 fire trucks were on the scene and more would be dispatched later on Monday morning. Smidt said the fires had been under control, but flared up again because of the wind.
Fire-fighting helicopters unable to fight fires because of the smoke coming from the fires they’re supposed to be fighting? There’s a limitation there: anyone spot it?
Meanwhile, I snapped a quick pic in the rather ethereal light this morning.
Smokey sunrise
Everything is weird shade of peach, the mountain is still partially obscured through the haze and my car is getting covered in ash.
EDIT: Here’s the view from town this lunchtime. Somewhere in there is 1,086m of flat mountain.
Shrouded
EDIT 2: More smokey sun pics at CapeTalk (HT: Darkwing)
EDIT 3: Argus: “arson is to blame“
It is miserable here in Somerset West.
Emil´s last blog post was: Brand in Helderberg (Note: 6000 miles… is not responsible for the content of external internet sites)
Emil > I can imagine. Can you get any more pictures?
Some goods ones here: http://www.capetalk.co.za/shows/sun.asp
Try living in Melbourne…
I don’t think we’ve seen the sky in 2 weeks! We stay indoors with the aircon on. I haven’t been out on my MTB in 3 weeks! The kids can’t play outside. The Mrs can’t hang out washing ‘cos it comes back in stinking of smoke. And on top of it all, the wife and baby both have bronchitis!
On the bright side, we’re about 15km from the closest fires (still raging!) and we’ve had some magnificent sunsets!
DelBoy´s last blog post was: Victoria burns – update (Note: 6000 miles… is not responsible for the content of external internet sites)
Sorry mate, no photo’s. Just a little too busy. But there are a few good ones over at Die Burger – they are in Afrikaanse, though 😉
I find it quite a surprise that no mention of Keith’s Oscar was made 😕
Emil´s last blog post was: Brand in Helderberg (Note: 6000 miles… is not responsible for the content of external internet sites)
wow, hectic!
Ordinarylife´s last blog post was: I am chicken! And not afraid to admit it. (Note: 6000 miles… is not responsible for the content of external internet sites)
Oh gosh. How eerie and terrible (although the photos were pretty good).
Lady Fi´s last blog post was: Fat Tuesday (Note: 6000 miles… is not responsible for the content of external internet sites)