Page 84 - KBHA BULLETIN 5

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Mountain Fires

Mountain fires were always a problem especially before Boyes Drive was completed in 1929.
This scenic drive acted as an effective firebreak and since its construction few mountain fires

have caused damage to homes below it. There were, however, many severe fires and the one that
began on Sunday 23 December 1945 did considerable damage over a period of 36 hours. The

police report indicated that the fire was started by a party of picnickers in the Clovelly Valley

who had left their fire unattended. Within a few hours the fire had crossed the saddle of the
mountain and was burning furiously above Kalk Bay, threatening the Fishermen’s Flats. A

change of wind sent the blaze along to St. James and many houses below the Boyes Drive were
threatened. Edited extracts from the Cape Times on Christmas Day indicated the severity of the

fire.

“Hundreds of residents in the district stood by to evacuate their homes and so threatening did

the fire become that no less than 24 occupants of homes below the Boyes Drive in Kalk Bay and
St. James removed their furniture to places of safety. The roar of the fire could be heard along

the Main Road, Kalk Bay and clouds of soot, cinders, ash and smoke swept through the streets.”

The fire was finally extinguished after some 36 hours after lorry-loads of naval ratings from the

H.M.S. Enterprise, anchored in Simon’s Town, were sent to assist the weary municipal beaters
and fire-fighters. It had been a close-call, but fortunately there were no homes gutted or persons

injured, although the thatch on Holy Trinity Church had begun smouldering. (Fig. 4.13.)

On Guy Fawkes night, 5 November 1960, a fire behind ‘Petrava’ on Boyes Drive was started

when a rocket at a fireworks display on Dalebrook Beach was blown onto the mountain by the
strong south-easter. Again in 1972 and 1982 there were severe mountain fires. The 1972 fire was

described by Mr Tommy Carse of Godfrey Road as the worst in 30 years. (Cape Argus,
24/1/1972.) In June 1999 ‘Denique’, a house at the top of Jacobs Ladder, was severely damaged

by the most recent mountain fire.

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