Local Government, Environ-mental Affairs and Development Planning
Following the recent fire that affected the Overstrand Municipality, particularly Kleinmond:
- (a) How many hectares of land was affected in total, (b) of the land that was affected, how much was (i) public land and (ii) private land and (c) under whose jurisdiction did the land fall in b(i);
- whether there were any fire assessments or mitigation strategies in place before the fire took place; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details;
- (a) how many firefighters were deployed in total and (b) from which local munici-palities were they deployed;
- what support did the Provincial Disaster Management Centre provide to the Overstrand Municipality in fighting the fire?
(1)(a) 5372 hectares
(b) (i) Public land 3200 hectares
(ii) Private land 2172 hectares
(c) Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment in an area known as Block R Compartment R29(a).
(2) Yes, there were assessment and mitigation strategies in place. The Forestry Support Programme of the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment has been removing the cultivated forests and rehabilitating the area. Fuel load reduction are being performed and fire breaks constructed.
(3)(a) Total of 158 Firefighters were deployed.
(b) Overstrand Municipality 16
City of Cape Town 23
CapeNature 23
Working on Fire 40
NCC 10
GoFPA 2
Traffic & LE 13
Volunteer Wildfire Services 9
Forestry Support Programme 22
(4) The PDMC supported Overstrand Municipality fighting the fire by providing Aerial Support in the form of three (3) helicopters and one (1) Command and Control aircraft amounting to R 320,664.00 and 1 specialised ground team amounting to R 40,702.00 Officials from the Provincial Disaster Management Centre were also present in the Incident Command Post.
