African Wildlife and Environment Issue 68

FAUNA, FLORA & WILDLIFE

FAUNA, FLORA & WILDLIFE

in scattered heaps. There were still odd animals stumbling around badly burnt and they had to be put down. One particular sight that haunted me was a Tsessebe that had been badly burnt and was blind. It was bumping into trees and we also had to put it out of its misery. Smaller reptiles and birds also were found dead; however smaller mammals and rodents have the presence of mind to go underground if they are not able to flee. Certain plant seeds will also not germinate if they don’t have the fire stimulus, so a fire is a necessary function in nature; however this particular fire set by man had caused massive damage. Years later this southwestern part of the KNP was again in the news where a massive fire burnt the whole area, and apart from the animal and vegetation destruction there was extensive loss of life of community women who were staying in a camp to cut thatch grass. Many of the field rangers from Pretoriuskop who were trying to save them also succumbed to the fire and lost their lives. One just hopes that through these kinds of tragedies we learn valuable lessons, so that it will never happen again. I had taken over the management of the new Jock Safari Lodge, and we were still in the construction phase before opening. I happened to notice smoke to the west, south of Pretoriuskop and contacted the field ranger sergeant Batista Baloi at Stols Nek, my previous section that I had been running for five years. They assured me it was certain fire research plots that were being burnt and it was all under control. The KNP has fire research plots in various localities all over the park where the effect of fire on the vegetation is closely monitored. The response of the vegetation to the frequency and intensity of fires will give an indication of what the optimum fire frequency for the area might be, and assist with better management decisions. Later that afternoon I saw that smoke had now reached high into the sky and it definitely did not look like a fire that was under control. There was a strong ‘berg wind’ blowing from the north-west and I realised that the 6 000 ha Jock Safari Lodge concession area would be lost if this fire continued on its current path. It was now burning through the Napi Trails area which lay to the west of the concession and, unbeknown to me at this time, the Napi Wilderness Trails camp was busy burning down. I contacted the technical services division of the KNP to see if there was a grader in the vicinity. I realised the only way to stop the fire was to grade a firebreak strip on the eastern cutline of the Jock Safari Lodge concession that ran almost in a straight line from the Voortrekker road in the south, northwards to the Mbyamiti River. Ben Kruger dispatched a grader which arrived just before sunset and I immediately got the driver to start grading with one blade width. I had also

requested that my ex-colleagues from Malelane and Stols Nek come and assist and we put in a back burn as we trotted behind the grader. Remember that a back burn is put in against the wind so that a big enough area is burnt to prevent the head fire jumping once it reaches this already burnt area. You literally use fire to fight fire. By the time the head fire did get to the concession eastern boundary, there was a big enough buffer to stop the fire entering the Jock Safari Lodge concession area. Later that night I saw the new section ranger from Pretoriuskop at the Myamiti River, and I warned him that the wind would most likely turn into a strong south-easter which was usually the case in the evening, after there had been a strong northwesterly wind for most of the day. Many of the locals believe that the North West (NW) wind goes and fetches the South Easter (SE) wind. As I had predicted, the wind did turn and this massive fire now burnt in a north-westerly direction, being driven by the strong south-easterly wind in the evening. It crossed the Pretoriuskop/Skukuza tar road without hesitation and when the Pretoriuskop field rangers realised it was headed for the grass cutters’ camp, they raced there to try and evacuate them. In the confusion that followed, where the situation was made worse by the thick smoke, the fire literally overtook them and more than twenty people lost their lives as a result. There were some that survived by splashing water from a tank or climbing high into trees, but the smoke inhalation was what had affected everyone in the vicinity. We will never really know the full terror that they experienced in those last moments. I have personally seen trees that explode with such intensity in a hot fire, and when a crown fire occurs where the fire is not only burning the undergrowth, but also running along the tree crowns, it is very scary seeing flames twenty meters or more high. In situations like that there is literally nothing you can do, but ensure that firstly people are safe, infrastructure is protected and then get ahead of the fire to put in a back burn, so that there is no material left to burn and the fire will die out. In many protected areas that are big enough, they favour a natural approach and just let nature take its course. Simulating a lightning strike by having a single point ignition and then letting the fire burn itself out, is often referred to as a patch mosaic way of burning and this basically burns the areas that need it, and the areas that do not have enough material to burn remain untouched. This will only work if the condition are favourable, and is usually done in the cool of the evening and then allowed to run its course without human interference. Fire research is ongoing and often the smaller an area the more intensive management is needed especially when it comes to fire.

One cannot help but be reminded of that Bible verse in James 3 verse 5 & 6, “Even so the tongue is a little member and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature, and it is set on fire of hell” .

Please do your bit to help prevent unwanted fires by applying basic safety rules. An accidental fire can be very destructive so remember to err on the side of caution. If in doubt, don’t! Perhaps if we just apply this rule before we speak as well, the world will be a better place.

Bryan Havemann General Manager Timbavati Private Nature Reserve bryan.havemann@gmail.com

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