AGRICULTURAL NEWS - “While strong winds have been a contributing factor, the fires devastating thousands of hectares of land could have been avoided,” says Dr. Jack Armour, Commercial Manager at Free State Agriculture (FSA), responsible for disaster mitigation and response.
“If you look at the AFIS map of fire incidents over the past two days, it clearly shows that most of the fires occur along national roads,” Dr. Armour explains.
The prevalence of fires along national roads occurs due to four main factors.
Irresponsible drivers throwing cigarette butts out of car windows, as well as fires carelessly made and left unextinguished by road workers and commuters, are two significant factors.
Homeless people sleeping and cooking under bridges and culverts pose another concerning trend.
Finally, poor fire load reduction measures (namely, the cutting of grass and bushes) indicate a failure in responsibility by national road authorities.
Human action is also the root cause of many of the fires along the Lesotho border. In this area, fires are deliberately started as an act of intimidation and retaliation when farmers illegally use the grazing lands of others. Faulty Eskom power lines may also cause fires.
“Under the predicted red Fire Danger Index (FDI) conditions of gale-force, hot, gusty winds blowing over heavy fuel loads, Fire Protection Associations (FPAs) are placed on high alert but are basically helpless against runaway veld fires in these conditions,” Dr. Armour notes. “For this reason, prevention is always better than control.”
In accordance with this reasoning, FSA calls upon road users to avoid discarding cigarettes and litter, in particular glass and other items that may have a magnifying effect. FSA further calls upon the relevant authorities to reduce the fire load represented by grass and bushes along the roads.
Farmers are urged to report areas where there is a high fire load, to check their powerlines for faults and bird nests, and to report these to ESKOM and to FSA for follow-up.
“By observing these precautions, we can avoid unnecessary damage to land, infrastructure, livestock, and ultimately human lives,” Dr. Armour observes.
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