KIMBERLEY – Quick reaction by a resident and a community member helped to extinguish a veldfire which was believed to be started by a suspected arsonist who apparently sought to cause damage to a residential property in Bartle Place, Beaconsfield.
A resident of Beaconsfield and another community member was alerted by the toxic fumes at around 13:30 this afternoon.
The community member rushed over to the residents home to alert them of the fire. He says: “I smelled fire and when I inspected where it was coming from I saw flames underneath the branches of an old tree extending over the resident’s property. I rushed over to notify the owners. I feared the tree could catch alight and burn down their home.”
“When I got to the home a woman was in the front of the yard, she said that her husband was struggling to get the hose pipe close enough to douse the fire. I ran as fast as I could to fetch a 25L container of water. When I got back her husband was busy hosing down the fire from outside the property. Together we were able to bring the fire under control and put it out.”
“That the fire was started underneath the tree is very suspect. It seems as if the arsonist’s goal was to have it catch fire. This is the second fire in a short time. The overgrown veld is posing a fire hazard on top of the water crisis if this happened while the water was off this could have been far worse,” the community member concludes.