A hot, windy weekend kept Western Cape fire crews busy on the last weekend before Christmas, with a fire at Laborie Wine Estate in Paarl and disruptions in a number of other farming areas.
Photo: Facebook | DFW Fire & Rescue NPC
A fire broke out around 12 pm on Saturday, 20 December, at the historic Laborie Wine Estate, destroying a restaurant and an accommodation wing and forcing the estate to close during the peak summer tourist season ahead of Christmas.
Footage shared by private firefighting organisation DFW Fire & Rescue NPC showed flames as high as a single-storey building engulfing the thatched roof of the estate’s first accommodation wing and the adjacent restaurant, Cucina Di Giovanni.
According to a statement by the Drakenstein Municipality, firefighters managed to prevent the spread of the fire to the estate’s manor house and second accommodation wing.
“[Fire-protection agency‑deployed] helicopters assisted ground crews with aerial water drops during the containment phase,” it added.
A post on DFW Fire & Rescue NPC’s Facebook page said burning embers from the restaurant and accommodation blew onto the thatched roofs of the manor house and a second restaurant on the premises. However, firefighters were able to cover the two roofs with 32 000ℓ of foam to prevent them from catching fire.
The municipality said the cause of the fire is unknown and will be investigated once the scene has been cleared. An estate official confirmed Laborie will reopen on Wednesday, 24 December.
Farmer’s Weekly reached out to KWV, which owns Laborie, for comment on whether the fire affected any surrounding vineyards and will update the story once a response is received.
Multiple fires
The Cape Winelands District Municipality’s fire services, which battled the blaze at Laborie, also had to respond to a fire near Franschhoek. That fire started on a road verge and spread between the R45 and the Berg River, fanned by a strong, hot wind.
The municipality said in a statement that it deployed a helicopter, ground teams, and multiple firefighting vehicles to prevent the flames from reaching nearby properties, with support from Stellenbosch Municipality’s fire services.
In Caledon, a veld fire near the Caledon Casino led to the temporary closure and later a stop-go system on the N2 highway on Saturday afternoon.
The Greater Overberg Fire Protection Association said on its Facebook page that “multiple ignitions, in an area with no access on Casino land earlier … morphed into a large veld and mountain fire within 30 minutes”.
Fanned by strong wind, the fire spread quickly, and firefighters worked to protect the casino and the town reservoir from the flames.
The Greater Overberg Fire Protection Association and local partners also battled a fire that broke out in the mountains between Stanford and Tesselaarsdal on Saturday afternoon.
The blaze narrowly missed farmlands above the Stanford Hills Estate and burned uncontrolled in the mountain between the two Overberg villages, with firefighters focusing on protecting property.
