Cape Town fires: police investigate causes after library damaged | South Africa | The Guardian
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Cape Town fires: police investigate causes after library damaged
Table Mountain fire erupts in Cape Town, forces evacuation at nearby campus – video
Police in Cape Town have arrested a man on suspicion of starting one of the wildfires raging on the slopes of Table Mountain.
Over the weekend one fire spread to the University of Cape Town (UCT), burning the historic campus library and forcing the evacuation of 4,000 students. Other fires broke out around Devil’s Peak, a spur of the mountain.
On Monday, local authorities said they were investigating the causes of the fires amid concern that arsonists may have been responsible for at least one. SANParks, which runs Table Mountain national park, said on Sunday it believed that the first and largest blaze had been started accidentally by a homeless person.
Firefighters were struggling to contain the fires, which have been fuelled by high winds, and some neighbourhoods of the city have been evacuated. Residents have been told to dampen their gardens with hoses or irrigation systems.
JP Smith, a mayoral committee member for safety and security, said on Monday: “There is a lot of speculation currently about additional fires that were started, and whether the original fire was an act of arson. This will form part of investigations, but the city can confirm that one suspect in his 30s was taken into custody last night in the vicinity of Devil’s Peak.”
Smith said the suspect was spotted by a local resident who had tracked him down with the help of family members and dogs. Other reports in local media spoke of two other arrests.
It is unclear how much damage has been done at UCT. On Sunday, orange flames lit up the windows of the Jagger library, which houses considerable archives and book collections, while firefighters sprayed jets of water to douse the blaze.
UCT’s executive director of libraries, Ujala Satgoor, said the reading room at the library had been gutted but the triggering of the fire detection system had preventing the spread of the fire to other parts of the library.
She said some valuable collections had been lost.“I write this message with a deep sense of sorrow and devastation at the loss,” Satgoor wrote in a statement posted to Twitter. “Some of us watched from on site with horror and helplessness this elegant and historical library burn.”
The Jagger library houses the university’s special collections library, which has priceless archival material including rare books, manuscripts, photographs and documents such as anti-apartheid pamphlets. Some of these have been digitised.
Other campus buildings also caught fire, including one containing a prized botanical collection, and a historic windmill nearby burned.
Photograph: Mike Hutchings/Reuters
Just offcampus on the slopes of Table Mountain, wind spread the flames across dry brush, and part of the Rhodes Memorial restaurant caught fire, Cape Town media reported.
Dan Plato, the Cape Town mayor, said: “It is tragic that literary treasures have been lost at the UCT library, but I have been informed that some of the most valuable works were saved by the quick activation of roller doors. Our attention and support remains with firefighters and all role-players working to protect further loss of property.”
More than 100 firefighters and emergency personnel were deployed to the university campus and to Table Mountain national park on Sunday. Four helicopters were being used to drop water on threatened areas, officials said.
One firefighter was injured and was being treated at a hospital, according to the Cape Town fire and rescue department.
Table Mountain national park’s fire manager, Philip Prins, said the fire had spread particularly rapidly because of the mountain’s “very old pine trees and their debris”. He said: “The fire created its own wind that further increased the rate of spread. The excessive amount of smoke and related updrafts made it impossible for the aerial support to slow the spread.”
Table Mountain national park called on social media for hikers to leave the area and for motorists to remove cars parked in the vicinity.
Agence France-Presse and Associated Press contributed to this report