KNYSNA: Remembering the 2017 fires - It has been a year since Knysna experienced the devastation of fires that swept through the town from 7 June onwards, but still there is no exact, accepted cause as to what brought on this blaze of destruction.
Two definitive theories exist as to what caused flames to engulf the town and its surrounds, from Elandskraal through to Plettenberg Bay, on the fateful day, and two more reports are still outstanding.
Residents and also this newspaper have asked numerous times when these reports would be available, but to no avail.
Rumours abound that the two yet unreleased reports – one being that of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research's (CSIR) Meraka Institute and the other a Western Cape Government commissioned report from Vulcan Wildfire Management - have no actual cause of the fire connected to them and are merely a study of factors around the fire, how it moved, what affected it etcetera.
Of the two existing theories, that of the Knysna Municipality and that of AfriForum, residents of affected areas have gravitated towards the latter.
Municipality’s theory
As previously reported by Knysna-Plett Herald (KPH), in short, fire chief Clinton Manuel found in his report that the fire was caused by human activity, when flammable material was introduced into the Elandskraal area – pine cones were found where no pine trees grew and stacked fuel such as planks were found nearby.
He stated that weather conditions on the day fuelled this fire along.
Forensic scientist Dr David Klatzow explains his conclusions at a media conference in August last year. Photo: Rozier van Tonder.
'Unattended lighting strike'
In contrast, the AfriForum report – compiled by forensic scientist Dr David Klatzow – states that an unattended lightning strike in the Elandskraal area months before 7 June caused underground smouldering which, fuelled by weather conditions on the day, flared into a full-blown blaze.
This opinion is shared by several other people, notably the engineer and scientist Dr Wallace Vosloo.
Outstanding reports
As mentioned earlier, one of the still outstanding reports has been compiled by Vulcan Wildfire Management – an independent company contracted to do so by the Western Cape government.
Vulcan's director Ryan Heydenrych said in his latest communication with KPH: "We have concluded our report and analysis and delivered this to our client, the Western Cape Directorate Disaster Management and Fire & Rescue Services. As such, in order to get the answers you seek, I refer you to (them)."
Numerous queries regarding the report has been sent to provincial government but at the time of going to print, no answer was forthcoming.
During previous communications with Heydenrych, he said the report was compiled through conducting interviews with industry professionals, fire services, disaster management, members of the community, etc. He added that the report is a "holistic analysis of the Knysna fire incident in order to understand what lessons can be learned".
"It is not aimed at the origin or cause, or finding responsibility, as that is very much the role of a fire investigation. This is neither our function nor the purpose for the report," he said.
The Meraka Institute
Another report interested parties have been waiting for in anticipation is an investigation conducted by scientists at the CSIR’s Meraka Institute.
The institute’s confidential report is authored by Dr Philip Frost, a senior scientist at the CSIR who heads a group at Meraka called Earth Observation Applications.
Again, on numerous occasions KPH has sent queries regarding this report to the institute. The reply received has always been the same from spokesperson Tendani Tsedu, being: “due diligence needs to be done”.
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