SANParks said while the Newlands Forest area would reopen, other affected areas remain closed to the public.
The fire, which started on Sunday morning, has destroyed around 650 hectares of the park.
Newlands Forest will reopen to the public on Saturday, almost a week after a wildfire swept across Table Mountain National Park (TMNP).
Paths that will be reopened to the public include; Newlands Forest, Devils Peak towards Platteklip footpath, Molteno jeep track towards Kloofnek, Atlantic Seaboard (Camps Bay, Kasteelspoort etc), Constantia Nek, Lions Head, Signal Hill, and Cecilia Forest.
According to TMNP Park Manager, Frans van Rooyen, permitted recreational activities in the reopened areas mentioned above will continue as before, including hiking and dog walking with visitors, . kindly requested to remain on demarcated footpaths and to be mindful of rules pertaining to keeping dogs under control .
Cape Town Fires: Minister Creecy to assess damage
‘Map a way forward’
The department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment explained that Minister Creecy will “get a glimpse of the impact the fire has had on the communities around the national park.”
She will also engage the authorities and the firefighters, in order to map a way forward. Minister Creecy was joined by DFFE Spokesperson Albi Modise, who confirmed on Saturday that the “minister has just taken off to the sky [from the Newlands Base] for her to have a helicopter view of the extent of the damage”.
“Part of the plan for the minister today is to address and engage with the firefighters who were deployed to fight the fires that ravaged this part of the country.”
Cape Town fire: Satellite images show the destruction caused by the blaze
The South African National Space Agency shared satellite images of the Cape Town fire. More than 600 hectares was destroyed by the blaze.
CAPE TOWN FIRE’S DEVESTATION AS SEEN FROM SPACE
The South African National Space Agency (SANSA) said Sentinel-2 images of Table Mountain National Park were captured, nearly a month apart, on 21 March and 20 April 2021.
An area of approximately 622 hectares (6.22 square kilometres), which is represented by an ugly fire scar in the images, was destroyed by the Cape Town fire.
“On the 20
th April 2021 active fires were visible on the western side of the fire scar, with a few spot fires in the vicinity of UCT,” said SANSA.
weekly newspaper.
No flooding in the bayous and swimming to safety in alligator-infested waters. No tornadoes throwing around cows from the fields in Kansas and no sprinting from the lava that’s hot on your heels from a volcanic eruption in Hawaii. So I feel fairly safe from these.
I don’t know a lot about tsunamis except that they’re caused by shifting of tectonic plates at the bottom of the ocean (I think). Nothing shook me to my core more than the tsunami in Thailand. THE tsunami.
I mean, what do you do in a situation like that? You can’t drive away, you can’t bop along doing the doggy. And you definitely cannot outrun it.
Table Mountain reopens certain paths following fire
24 April 2021 12:23 PM
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Table Mountain National Park has announced the reopening of certain areas which had been closed off to the public due to the fire.
Park Manager Frans van Rooyen says permitted recreational activities, including hiking and dog-walking, will be allowed to resume in the following reopened areas:
Newlands Forest
Molteno jeep track towards Kloofnek
Atlantic Seaboard (Camps Bay, Kasteelspoort etc)
Constantia Nek
Van Rooyen has urged visitors to remain on demarcated footpaths and to be mindful of rules pertaining to keeping dogs under control.
Other areas on Table Mountain National Park will remain closed until further notice in the interest of the safety and the sensitivity of certain areas post-fire , according to a statement issued by Van Rooyen.