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April 19, 2021

All The Footage From Cape Town’s Monster Fire, Including Restaurant Explosion [Images+Videos]

It has been a truly horrific 24 hours in the Mother City, and strong winds are currently hampering firefighting efforts as heroes battle the flames on the front lines.

[imagesource: Twitter / @marzahn_botha]

It has been a truly horrific 24 hours in the Mother City, and strong winds are currently hampering firefighting efforts as heroes battle the flames on the front lines.

On Sunday morning, firefighters were called into action. According to a statement from the official Table Mountain National Park Twitter account, “the location of the fire was immediately above Philip Kgosana Drive/Hospital Bend”.

The same statement added that “after the initial investigation, it is surmised that the origin of the fire is from a vacated vagrant fire.”

We will provide donation details, as well as other ways you can assist, at the bottom of this article.

Before we get to the videos and images of the fire, which have been widely shared, we were sent this by a reader.

We must stress that the image remains unverified, but this is around the area where the fire started:

Below, with the area of interest circled:

Again, the image has not been verified.

As news of the fire spread across social media, dramatic videos and images were shared.

Many were not credited, so apologies for that. If you would like us to credit you, please get in touch with us via Twitter, or mail russel@2oceansvibe.com.

These are from Sunday morning:

More from start:

It is believed that this is the moment the Rhodes Memorial restaurant exploded, with many speculating that the onsite gas canisters ignited:

The damage is beyond extensive, and images from this morning show that:

As the fire spread, cyclists and runners on the mountain offered live updates:

Thankfully, Lisette was safe, but her car was not as fortunate:

Cyclist Jeremy Stewart recorded this video:

It wasn’t long before winds pushed the fire towards UCT’s campus:

And then down into neighbouring suburbs, below the university campus:

Mostert Mill, the country’s oldest working windmill, was not spared:

Just before 4PM, Table Mountain National Park released their statement, confirming that the fire is believed to have been as a result of a vagrant fire:

Throughout the day, and overnight and into this morning, the heroic efforts of our firefighters are visible for all to see.

We will provide donation details, as well as other ways you can assist, at the bottom of this article.

More images from campus:

Cape Town Etc put this video together:

This from The Guardian:

Tragically, the Reading Room of the historic Jagger Library was engulfed by flames:

This message from a UCT librarian, sent yesterday:

“The reading room is apparently gutted. That’s the African Studies Collection and African Film gone, as well as at least one of the rare books collections, and probably the recently renovated Gov Pubs, but that’s not clear. There’s a fire shutter between those, so hopefully that survived. The Gov Pubs materials were, however, mostly in the upper levels of Jagger due to the renovation and so they’re all gone as well. The lower levels where the rare books and manuscripts are do not appear to be on fire, but the fire in the reading room keeps flaring up so they can’t get down to check. There’s almost certainly going to be water damage, but hopefully the compactus will have protected some of it. As far as we know the two other stores (one in the Kaplan building, one on the Main Road) are still safe, but no one is able to confirm this for certain.”

The damage speak for itself:

Via a statement by Ujala Satgoor, the executive director of UCT Libraries, there is still some hope:

The gist of what she said, via Al Jazeera:

Satgoor said on Facebook that the Reading Room of the library had been gutted but that fire shutters had been triggered preventing the flames from spreading to other parts of the building.

“Some of our valuable collections have been lost,” Satgoor said, adding that the library would only be able to assess the full extent of the damage after the building had been declared safe.

“This is indeed a sad day for UCT and UCT Libraries! Although this loss will be felt deeply, we will weather this storm and rise from the ashes.”

The African Studies Library and Special Collections at the University of Cape Town has suffered losses of rare and invaluable resources that have been indispensable to researchers all over the world.

Calls have gone out to researchers to archive and digitise any materials they may have copied, photographed, or recorded at the library.

Any materials can be uploaded here.

More on the UCT campus damage:

Here’s a student detailing his evacuation:

This statement from a Smuts residence warden:

“My students in Smuts hall were successfully evacuated in time. I have literally been in the fire from when it broke out until now. The fire engulfed our home, Smuts hall, Fuller hall and the adjacent buildings. The devastation is shocking to see. I have never seen or experienced this before. The heroes for me are 3 of my sub wardens, my older son and two volunteers who prevented Smuts hall and Fuller hall from completely burning down. I witnessed everything first hand in person for several hours. It took a while before help from the City of Cape Town was received. Upper campus is sealed off and no one is being allowed in.”

A timelapse:

In amongst the destruction, it is utterly disheartening to read reports of intentional fires being lit by arsonists, with arrests made.

The South African has a comment from SAPS Western Cape Spokesperson Andre Traut:

“In response to your enquiry kindly be advised that a 35 year old male was arrested last night at 20:10 in Philip Kgosana Drive Cape Town by a member of the City’s Law Enforcement on a charge of arson.”

“It is alleged that a member of the local neighbourhood watch witnessed three suspects making a fire on the mountain, and alerted authorities. Two of the suspects managed to evade arrest. The circumstances surrounding the case are being investigated and an appearance in court is yet to be scheduled.”

This was also confirmed by Table Mountain National Park fire manager Philip Prins during an interview last night:

This morning, pumping winds pushed the fire towards Vredehoek, and evacuations are underway.

Some of the footage from the area:

Scenes above Vredehoek this morning:

The iconic Disa Towers, perhaps most well known as ‘Tampon Towers’, are being evacuated. If they were to be damaged, or burn down entirely, one wonders whether they would be rebuilt.

St Cyprian’s Pre-School has been closed for the day, out of precaution.

An update from the City of Cape Town:

If you are told to evacuate by officials, here is what you should ensure you take with you:

For those who want to assist, either financially or with other donations, Good Things Guy has a list of how to help here.

Here is perhaps the simplest way:

You can also SnapScan and donate to VWS:

UCT students who need a meal this evening, and throughout the week, should note this:

Gift of the Givers is also coordinating relief efforts, and helping to feed displaced UCT students.

You can donate to them here, via a number of methods.

Animal owners in the area who need a place for their pets to go should note this Facebook post:

The Cape of Good Hope SPCA adds that you call them on 083 326 1604 if you see any injured or displaced wild animals.

You can find out how to assist the SPCA here.

To stay up to speed with the latest information, News24 has a live tracker, featuring the latest information, videos, and images, which you can follow here.

[sources:news24&aljazeera&southafrican]

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