Asthmatics and the elderly have for weeks been battling nightly (and sometimes daily) smoke from fires adjoining wards 1 and 2, where acrid fumes on several occasions have an oily texture of plastic burning, and mysteriously die out in the early hours of the morning.
For the past few days, a heavy pall of bush fire smoke have oppressed the suburb, with the plume visible for many miles – what is the cause, where are the fires, and how are they being managed? Summerstrand is within fire jumping distance to the ecologically sensitive Cape Recife Nature Reserve, where high summer temperatures raise the possibility of runaway fires – but we don’t have much in the way of lightning, so the source of ignition must be human ‘fire starters’.
The NMBM has sealed off the road from Gomery drive into the area, which is also signboarded by a firm of consultants and Rovers football club, next to NMMU uni – but there is no access control to restrict vagrants. Phoning the Municipality is useless, resulting in being pushed from pillar to post, while on their website the Metro published only a warning about FALSE ALARMS: FIRE SERVICES.
False alarms? On what planet are they living?
Regards
Mike Stow
