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It is fire season. Several intense veld fires have been reported in various parts of the country, causing loss of winter forage and stored hay bales, but more tragically, have caused the loss of the lives of several people and livestock.
This year, several factors make the fire hazard particularly grave, according to Bobby Hoole, a fire protection officer for the Lions River Fire Protection Association in KwaZulu-Natal.
During the last seven to eight years, he says, there was a noticeable shift in the fire season in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands, and also elsewhere in the country. The onset of the fire season is being delayed by 6-8 weeks, thereby lengthening the fire risk period similarly, to late September into October.
“We now seem to only receive our first frost early to mid-June. In previous years, frost was expected as early as April, and coupled with this, we also receive very late autumn rainfall. This causes the veld grass to remain relatively green much longer, making it difficult to burn proper fire breaks until mid to late June, and even, some years, into July. We certainly see climate change as a contributing factor regarding the challenges landowners face in addressing fire management and preparation procedures.”
Read more about how to combat veld fires here.
A confluence of factors
According to Hoole another contributing factor this year is the tail-end of El Nino, with a very dry spell and low soil moisture in the late autumnn, which has been contrary to recent years, with only one cold spell bringing some moisture in early June.
“This cold front was followed by very heavy frosts, which caused the grass to turn dry very quickly. So, whilst the bulk of the preparation work for fire breaks had been done, landowners are now being faced with ultra-dry conditions with well-cured grasses that are tinder dry. This has heightened the risk for landowners completing their fire breaks in July, as a result of these adverse conditions.”
In addition, he says, this year specifically saw more northerly and north-westerly winds coming through strongly, which is quite unusual for this time of year. This has limited the number of days on which burning could commence, which put landowners further on the back foot in terms of their preparations.
“The confluence of all these factors is a tinder-dry fuel load and the inability to prepare all the fire breaks due to unfavourable wind conditions. The degree of mitigation in place for this time of year is generally not where it should be, however, landowners are making every effort to ensure fire breaks are all in place by the end of July.”
Post-fire mop-up
Of grave concern, he says, is that not all landowners, in making their fire breaks, are equally diligent with post-fire break mop-up.
“Making sure that fires are properly extinguished after the burn is paramount. Some fires may flare up again several days later due to smouldering material such as cow dung and woody vegetation burnt within the fire break. This is exactly how the recent Karkloof fire that burnt down just over 7 000 hectares started. The adverse weather conditions on the day made it extremely difficult for that fire to be controlled. The ember flow, due to the high winds, resulted in the rapid spread of the fire.”
Hunting and poaching
A general problem in his area, says Hoole, is the practice of illegal hunting with dogs on private land Often these hunters would use fire to chase rabbits and porcupines out of their warrens, with little regard for the potential consequences those fires could have. Alternatively, tracks of land would be lighted to get early green growth. This would attract game and make it easier to locate and hunt the animals. It was a fire started in this way that recently caused the death of six firefighters.
High-risk in the Free State
In the Northeastern Free State, says Bernard Habig, fire protection officer and general manager of the Northeastern Free State Fire Protection Association based in Warden, similar factors combined this year to create a very difficult and high-risk situation.
“The severely dry conditions in the second part of the summer caused veld to dry off very early – to such an extent that we had our first fires in March already. That was followed by late rain, which caused new green shoots to sprout, and then very late frosts. This made it impossible to start fire breaks in June, as is the usual routine in this area. When the frost did come, the north-westerly winds were such a factor that during June and July, we had ten burn days when conditions were safe for burning fire breaks.”
The upshot is that many producers were not able to complete their fire breaks, leaving large areas without proper fire break protection. Incessant strong winds heighten the fire threat even further. Now, he says, it is more important than ever for producers to coordinate their efforts within the structures of the various fire management areas to try and mitigate this threat as effectively as possible. – Izak Hofmeyr, Plaas Media
