Another water bomber helicopter deployed to fight Kouga blaze

More reinforcements have arrived in the Kouga municipality to battle the blazes that have destroyed houses and farmlands as they continued to burn on Friday morning.

Gift of the Givers teams arrived on site at St Francis Bay airfield to receive and fill the 2,000 litre capacity water bomber helicopter that arrived from Mossel Bay on Friday morning.

This follows a request from the Kouga municipality for Gift of the Givers’ assistance in taming the massive fire which has seen dozens of firefighters, volunteers and aerial support working tirelessly over the past two days.

Kouga mayor Hattingh Bornman said two helicopters were battling the three main fires. The areas affected include the Koukamma area, the second between St Francis Bay and Paradise Beach, and the third between Kabeljous and Jeffrey’s Bay.

Zwartenbosch is affected in the direction of Hankey, Oyster Bay Road, Kromme River, Riverside, Kabeljous River behind Nature’s Valley Private Game Reserve and Smithfield.

Gift of the Givers has hired the water bomber helicopter to assist the Kouga municipality, as this was a priority and urgent request.

Its spokesperson Ali Sablay gave thanks to pilot Richard Smit, who responded rapidly to the request to assist in the area.

“Our water tanker that arrived from Adelaide last night will be stationed permanently at the airfield. Two other water tankers will collect water from a source 2km away to replenish our tanker.

“This will assist in the speed of turnaround time for the helicopter to ensure the fire is tamed to permit ground firefighting crews to intervene more effectively at minimal risk to themselves,” Sablay said.

He said after a night without electricity due to burnt infrastructure, Eskom technicians could this morning carry out repair work to several affected sub-stations.

Water supply has since been restored and by 9am the N2 between Humansdorp and Jeffreys Bay was reopened.

The Herald