Kgalagadi fire contained on South African side

Posted by Anita Froneman on 11 September 2021

The fire that raged through the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park from Thursday, 9 September has been successfully contained on the South African side on Saturday morning, 11 September.

‘After a relentless effort by teams on the ground, the fire on the South African side of #KgalagadiTransfrontierPark is under control. The wind direction and speed will be crucial the next few days,’ Genevieve Maasdorp, SANParks communication officer said. ‘The fire on the Botswana side of the Park however is still continuing.’

Credit: Michael Potter on the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park Sightings Facebook group

The fire has destroyed Polentswa Lodge on the Botswana side of the park.

The fire was connected to wildfires that burned in the Northern Cape Province throughout the week, according to the situation report from Savage Breytenbach, incident commander for the Northern Cape Wildfire Response Team.

The Kgalagadi Transfrontier Fire had a fire front of 179kms and a forward spread of 2,9km per hour.

The cause of the fire is unknown. Many say that high grass after particularly good rains, and strong winds have helped the spread of the fire.

 






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