300+ Firefighters Battle Blaze Threatening Cape Town Neighborhood

More than 300 firefighters battled a blaze on the slopes of a mountain near Cape Town in South Africa for a second day Wednesday, and residents were evacuated from at least one neighborhood overnight, emergency services said. Five firefighters were injured and two were taken to the hospital, Cape Town Emergency Services spokesperson Jermaine Carelse said. The wildfire on the slopes near the seaside town of Simon's Town threatened houses in the predawn hours after it started Tuesday. That threat was narrowly averted, with only one derelict building on the grounds of a nearby South African navy base being damaged.

Footage of the raging wildfire last night near Simon's Town, Cape Town, South Africa 🇿🇦 | 19 December 2023 | #wildfire #Simonstown #Simonstownfire pic.twitter.com/ObA8mYrenR

— Simon ekpa after Mazi Nnamdi KANU (@EkpaKanu) December 20, 2023

Residents were evacuated from the neighborhood most at threat as a precaution, and five helicopters were scooping up water from the ocean to drop it on the blaze. The city of Cape Town said the number of firefighters working on the mountain was scaled back to around 200 later Wednesday and the fire was largely under control, but firefighters were still working to extinguish it.

Wildfires are a regular threat on the mountain slopes around Cape Town and the Cape Peninsula to its south in the hot, dry months from November to April. They become dangerous and unpredictable when they are fanned by strong coastal winds, which city authorities said happened with the Simon's Town fire. A huge wildfire burned across the slopes of Cape Town's world-famous Table Mountain for days in 2021, destroying nearly a dozen buildings, including some historic structures at the University of Cape Town.