The veld fire that raged since last week and caused massive destruction in the Dordabis area has finally been successfully contained on Sunday evening. 

Windhoek Rural constituency councillor Piet Adams said the fire destroyed more than 30 farms and other infrastructure.

The Khomas region’s disaster and emergency field coordinator, Oscar Hiskia said the fire was contained at around 18h00 on Sunday and a detailed assessment of the impact will be made soon.

“The whole time it was just the response in fighting the blaze. There was no team coordinating to collect data, hence we will go back and do a comprehensive assessment to determine the damage properly,” he explained.

He further added that the mostly communicated damaged stated by the farmers is not yet confirmed but what is confirmed is two oryx and a giraffe that were burnt at the game ranch. 

Animals have been kept in kraals without feed since last week and farmers have not yet calculated the damage to their property and livestock.

Another minor fire near Dordabis caused the death of a 63-year-old man on Friday.

When New Era visited the scene on Friday, firefighters from the community were
hard at work trying to control the fire by blocking it from entering the field near a school as well as from crossing over to unaffected areas.

“The aim here is just to stop the spread of the fire to vulnerable areas such as schools and households. The blaze is out of control because of the strong wind, and the damage is massive. We do not know what to do,” said a dejected Grandworth Vries.

The 30 affected farms include Hamis, Opdam, Karib, Bloukrans, Witkoppies, Dordabis, Audabib, Lang Been and Swartkoppies. 

– ljason@nepc.com.na