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The Table Mountain National Park (TMNP) has been tracking veld fires within the Park for the past number of years to determine amongst other things general trends, and “hot spot” areas, and to assist in developing firefighting strategies and response plans.

The Park has the unique challenge in that is an ‘Open Access Park’, i.e. there is limited access control due to it being located within and surrounded by the City of Cape Town. This allows easy access and difficult control measures to be implemented to prevent homeless person/s and malicious fires starting from carrying out illegal acts (camping, starting fires) within the area. To obtain a meaningful understanding, many of the veld fires are investigated to determine the actual cause as opposed to the making of assumptions. This is especially of importance in the rare occasions when damage to property occurs.

We share a case that occurred on Thursday, 11 January 2024 when a report was received of a person who had started two malicious fires in the Higgovale area. TMNP and the City of Cape Town Fire and Rescue Services firefighting resources responded quickly and were able to extinguish the fire before it had the chance to spread. An investigation was conducted due to the nature of the alleged circumstances. It was determined, after studying valuable video footage provided by a resident of the fire in its early stages, and where a person was observed at the fire scene, that it was in fact a negligently caused fire when a homeless person camping fire caused burning embers to land in not one, but two adjoining places a short distance downwind of the cooking fire. While the first spot fire was small and hardly visible, the second spot fire occurred in a pile of dead vegetation, causing a large fire. The image provided illustrates an example of the graphic reconstruction of the cooking fire (1) and the spot fires (2 & 3).

While unauthorised camping and cooking fires are not permitted within the TMNP, there is an important difference between a negligently caused fire (e.g., a camping fire burning out of control) and a maliciously set fire. While it is not argued that the outcome of either fire could be the same, the legal implications for each are significantly different.  

As a result of the outcome of this investigation, like many of the other fire investigations, TMNP Rangers were briefed and tasked to investigate vagrancy issues focusing on the northern and central sections of the park, with increased day and night patrols not just as a visual deterrent but with intent to apprehend anyone who contravenes legislation pertaining to safety and security in the park.

The TMNP would like to take this opportunity to request that the public continue to provide information assistance in the form of photographs and/or video clips of any fire in its early stages that they observe occurring within the Park as this material is often crucial when their appointed investigators Enviro Wildfire reconstruct the sequence of events on behalf of South African National Parks.