Helicopter crash in Cape Point

When we went home Sunday evening we saw how big damage the fire made in a beautiful nature area. A big part of the fynbos is gone. The destruction caused by the fire was terrifying.

Damage by fire

Elise explained to me that on the mountains in Cape Town you can find everywhere a fynbos vegetation. It requires regular burning for its persistence. In the absence of fire, fynbos is gradually replaced by thicket species. Most of the time the fire in fynbos is far from disaster. The last big fire was in 2000. This year the fire is very big and the firefighters are working very hard more than a week. It is a big and expensive operation. Unfortunately the fire is still not under control. A few more houses burned down or were damaged over the last days that the blaze spread across the city's Southern Peninsula. At least 500 people had been evacuated since the fire began in Muizenberg. Sunday evening we heard the sad news that the firefighting chopper crashed in Cape Point and the pilot died. He was a good experienced pilot and he did exceptional work over the past week. Helicopters did more than 2000 "drops" (each drop 1100 litres of water) at Muizenberg, Hout Bay, Tokai and Constantia. 

Helikopters are dropping water