By Zukile Majova
Political Editor
At least 13 people, including six firefighters, have died from raging veld fires in KwaZulu-Natal.
Three of the firefighters lost their battle with a veld fire that attacked them from different directions in Boston in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands.
The remaining three firefighters died after being airlifted to hospital.
Roland Robertson of the Midlands EMS said the firefighters were from the paper and pulp company, SAPPI.
Umngeni mayor Chris Pappas said the fire was inside private company land rented from the Ingonyama Trust Fund.
Veld fires in northern KZN that have been raging for the past week have killed seven people, with the most damage recorded in the Umlalazi Local Municipality, King Cetshwayo, Ilembe, uThukela, and Zululand districts.
Rural residents who have lost houses, livestock, and grazing pastures complained that they do not have water to fight the fires and that the local municipalities do not have fire trucks.
In a separate incident in Durban, a pregnant woman died when a fire erupted in the informal settlement of Kenville in the early hours of Sunday. The fire gutted over 100 structures and left about 300 people homeless.
In Calais village in Tzaneen, Limpopo, four children burned to death inside a one-roomed house on Saturday. Police said the mother of the children had gone to her parent’s home nearby, leaving her children in the house. It was not immediately clear what caused the fire.
Meanwhile, a fund manager from a major bank is working with Scrolla.Africa to lend a hand to a family that lost over 200 sheep during a veld fire in Qumbu in the Eastern Cape. Bulelani Yilo said they initially lost 205 sheep but had to slaughter a further 15 that were unlikely to survive their burn wounds.
“Sheep farming is an important source of funds for our families as we sell wool to make money to send children to school.”
The family and other small-scale farmers in the region need immediate help with feed for the remaining stock as vast grazing lands have been torched.
Pictured Above: An injured firefighter is airlifted to hospital in Boston, KZN.
Source: X
