2021 Table Mountain fire

2021 Cape Town fire
File:Table mountain 2021 fire 1.jpg Fire trucks on the Hospital Bend interchange going into the City Bowl on 19 April
Location	Table Mountain National Park and Southern Suburbs, Cape Town, South Africa
Statistics
Date(s)	18 April 2021 (2021-04-18) 08:45 SAST (06:45 UTC)
Burned area	at least 400 hectares
Land use	National park, university, suburban area
Injuries	5

The 2021 Table Mountain fire (also known as the Rhodes Memorial fire or Cape Town fire) is a major fire that started on 18 April 2021 in and around Table Mountain National Park and the neighbourhoods of Newlands, Rosebank, Mowbray and Rondebosch in Cape Town, South Africa. The damage to sites in the Table Mountain area included the Rhodes Memorial, where a restaurant burned down; the upper campus of the University of Cape Town (UCT), where the Special Collections library was gutted; and Mostert's Mill, a historic windmill that burned down. In addition, five firefighters were hospitalised.

Fire and response

The wildfire started on the morning of 18 April 2021 near Rhodes Memorial, Devil's Peak in Table Mountain National Park. Firefighters were alerted at 08:45 SAST (06:45 UTC). The fire was reported to have been started by a vagrant, and spread through old pine trees and debris, generating its own wind, towards the university campus and city. There was an extreme fire danger alert on the same day, with high temperature and low humidity.

Initially, the resulting smoke and wind updrafts caused by the fire prevented aerial firefighting support from being deployed. Later, over 250 firefighters were involved in fighting the fire and four helicopters were used to drop water onto the fire.

By 14:10 SAST, students at the University of Cape Town were evacuated. Official warnings were issued for hikers in the Newlands Forest area of Table Mountain National Park to also evacuate. At 16:05 SAST, South African National Parks (SANParks) announced that the restaurant at Rhodes Memorial had been destroyed in the fire. The M3 road was also closed, with the fire spreading to the other side of it.

On 19 April 2021 (8:00 SAST) homes in the Vredehoek, Walmer Estate and University Estate area of Cape Town were evacuated as a precautionary measure. This included the evacuation of the Disa Park residential complex.

By 15:00 SAST on 19 April, firefighters reported that the fire had been "largely contained".

Casualties and damage

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Mostert's Mill in 2012 and on 20 April 2021

File:FeesMustFall protests at UCT - the second day of protests 01 (cropped).JPG

Jagger Library (which houses UCT's Special Collections) in 2015

Firefighters

On 19 April Western Cape Premier Alan Winde stated that a total of five firefighters were hospitalised. At least four of them were hospitalised due to burn injuries.

Rhodes Memorial

The fire burnt down a restaurant at the Rhodes Memorial and its adjoining chapel.

External images
Remains of Jagger Reading Room
Remains of Cadboll House
The roof of the HW Pearson building burned.

University of Cape Town

More than six structures at the campus of the University of Cape Town suffered damage. Also affected was the special collections department of the UCT Libraries system, housed in Jagger Library, part of the research wing of UCT's main library. Although a fire detection system prevented the fire from reaching the rest of the main library, the reading room of Jagger Library was gutted by the flames, and some of the rare collections in the special collections department, which held over 1,300 collections and over 85,000 books and other items, were likely lost. A later assessment found that a vast majority of the African Studies Published Print Collection (about 70,000 items) and the entirety of the African Studies Film Collection DVDs (about 3,500 items) had been destroyed, along with documents relating to the university itself as well as any manuscripts or archives being kept in the Reading Room for digitization or after being digitized, but that the rare and antique collections kept underground, including significant documentation and works of the San and Khoi people who lived in the area in the 1870s, had been preserved.

The H.W. Pearson building caught on fire, although the Bolus Herbarium housed within narrowly escaped destruction and water damage. One of the damaged sections was the Plant Conservation Unit, which studies fossil pollen and compared historical photos of sites with the sites in the present day. Their photos are thought to have been digitized, and the sediment cores they were taken from were housed in a different area, but the fossil pollen lab itself was likely destroyed.

The fire also caused substantial damage to Cadbol House and La Grotta (administrative buildings) and to the Upper Campus student residences Smuts Hall and Fuller Hall. A number of other buildings suffered minor damage.

Mostert's Mill

The fire also destroyed the Mostert's Mill, the oldest working windmill in South Africa, built in 1796, and four thatched cottages behind it.

Newlands

The government reported that an unoccupied ministerial residence owned by the Department of Public Works and used by Labour Minister Thulas Nxesi had been “completely destroyed”.

Aftermath

On 18 April, UCT vice-chancellor Mamokgethi Phakeng suspended all academic activities for the following two days. On 19 April, Phakeng said students could return to their residences within 72 hours, with the exception of those who lived in either Smuts Hall or Fuller Hall. She added that restoring Fuller Hall to a habitable condition could take months. Most students were able to return to Smuts and Fuller Halls on 7 May.

Investigation

On 18 April at 20:10 SAST, a 35-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of starting the blaze.

City of Cape Town mayoral committee member for safety and security JP Smith stated that the City of Cape Town had received a number of eye witness accounts of "three people walking through the bush, with fires starting as they’re going."

See also

• Table Mountain fire (2000)
• Table Mountain fire (2006)
• Table Mountain fire (2009)
• 2015 Western Cape fire season