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The Deputy Minister of Environmental Affairs Ms Barbara Thomson, has commended fire-fighters for their courage and dedication as they battle multiple fires around the Cape.

During a visit to the Newlands Fire Station, Deputy Minister Thomson was briefed that while 95% of the fires around the Table Mountain National Park have been contained, about 75 fire-fighters from the Department’s Working-on-Fire programme (WoF) were battling another blaze in the Muizenburg area. Another 60 fire-fighters, 4 helicopters, 2 water bombers and chopper have been deployed to the Cape Point Section of Table Mountain National Park.

About 6 000 hectors of land has been destroyed since Sunday, 1 March 2015 when the fire erupted and over 2 million litres of water have been dropped by the aerial support to extinguish the deadly flames. DEA’s Working on Fire (WoF) programme has also spent about R4 million in total through aerial support, and bringing additional fire-fighters from the other provinces to assist.

“Today we say well done to the fire-fighters, if it wasn’t for most of you the worst would have happened and lives would have been lost,” she said. She also commended DEA’s WoF programme for training fire fighters and creating job opportunities thus alleviating poverty.

“We say thank you to this government funded programme for imparting skills to the fire fighters, without their skills we would not have been able to handle this situation,” she continued.

Issued by Department of Environmental Affairs