UPDATE at 13:42 Students evacuating all campuses as strong winds aid the spread of the fire. UCT Sports Centre reported to have caught alight.
UPDATE at 13:30 - The wind has picked up in Cape Town and is fanning the flames of a fire that is raging on Table Mountain. Reports are coming in of fires burning across the Upper Campus, Middle Campus, outside the Fuller Hall residence and on the Medical Campus.
The fire is getting further and further into UCT, it’s now reached Jammie Steps pic.twitter.com/JpPuaSdKei
— Nuhaa (@nuhaasoeker) April 18, 2021
Residents of Observatory in Cape Town were woken on Sunday morning by the sound of helicopters flying low over their buildings. Firefighters were alerted to a fire burning on the slopes of Devils Peak, just about the Groote Schuur hospital.
It is an unseasonably hot day in Cape Town with temperatures expected to reach the low 30s. Mercifully there was no wind in the morning as the firefighters attempted to control the fire.
However by 11am the fire was still not controlled and had spread up the mountainside and down over the suburbs of Rondebosch and Newlands.
A video captured the moment when the iconic Rhodes Memorial restaurant was damaged by a serious explosion. A section of the famous tearoom has been destroyed.
Sanparks have issued a statement that all hikers in the Newlands area should evacuate the mountain with immediate effect.
The fire was described by Sanparks as 'out of control'.
By 12pm the fire had reached the edge of the UCT upper campus and could be seen just above the tennis courts, which form the western edge of the campus, adjacent to the mountain.
Update from UCT SRC 14:41 -
Request for support from Pride Shelter
#Forestfire, #fireonthemountain, #Rhodesfire #CapeTown. Please drop off any donations of water, energade, chocolates etc
18 Carbrook Manor (Diane), or 2 Struben Rd (Colleen) or
11 Eden Rd (Bridgit), or
33 Newlands Rd (Ann)
ADT will collect at these drop off points. pic.twitter.com/tZ6yTLSVDg— Pride Shelter Trust (@prideshelter) April 18, 2021
