Cape Town Wild Fire

Firefighters work to control a blaze at the University of Cape Town’s library on Sunday. Parks officials said the blaze was most likely caused by an abandoned fire.Credit...Nic Bothma/EPA, via Shutterstock

JOHANNESBURG — Firefighters in Cape Town were battling  wildfire on Monday that had engulfed the slopes of the city’s famed Table Mountain and destroyed parts of the University of Cape Town’s archival library.

Helicopters dumped water on the area to try to contain the blaze, which began on Sunday and was most likely caused by an abandoned fire, according to South African National Parks officials. But as wind picked up strength overnight and fanned the flames, the fire spread to neighborhoods in the foothills of the mountain and forced some homes to be evacuated on Monday morning.

Helicopters dumping water on the area on Sunday. The fire spread to neighborhoods in the foothills of Table Mountain and forced some homes to be evacuated on Monday morning.Credit...Mike Hutchings/Reuters

 Anton Bredell, the minister in charge of environmental affairs and development planning for the Western Cape region, said in a statement, “The wind speed is expected to increase during the day, which may impact on the deployment of aerial firefighting.”    

“The helicopters cannot fly if the wind is too strong and the visibility too poor, but the situation will be fully assessed,” he added. “It is going to be a very tough day.”      

Firefighters leaving an area where the flames had become too aggressive on Sunday.Credit...Rodger Bosch/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

On Sunday night, the police arrested a man in his 30s in connection with new fires that were started on Table Mountain as the wildfire raged, according to Jean-Pierre Smith, a city councilman in Cape Town who sits on the mayor’s safety and security committee.

The wildfire began around 9 a.m. Sunday on the lower slopes of Devil’s Peak, one of the rugged ridges that form part of the iconic Table Mountain backdrop to Cape Town. Fanned by gusts of wind, the fire engulfed and destroyed a hillside restaurant before moving down to the university campus, which is largely built on the slopes of the mountain.

Several buildings, including a historic mill and the school’s library, which houses important archives and book collections, were soon on fire, and billows of thick white smoke rolled across the city. So far, there have been no deaths reported, but five firefighters have suffered injuries, according to officials.

Around 4,000 students were evacuated from campus residence halls on Sunday, according to Nombuso Shabalala, a university spokeswoman. The university announced on Sunday that it would suspend its operations until at least Tuesday.

Around 4,000 students were evacuated from campus residence halls on Sunday, according to a University of Cape Town spokeswoman.Credit...Rodger Bosch/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Videos on social media showed scores of students, some clutching small bags, rushing from residence buildings as the fire engulfed the nearby hillside. Busisiwe Mtsweni, an undergraduate studying finance and accounting, was on the university’s upper campus at around noon when “everyone got into panic mode,” she said in a telephone call.

Sparks from the mountain set off smaller fires among the buildings, and billows of smoke made it difficult to breathe, she said. When Ms. Mtsweni and her friends made a dash to their residence to grab their belongings, they came across a student suffering what appeared to be an asthma attack and led her, coughing, away from the smoke-filled part of the campus, she added. Ms. Mtsweni was later evacuated by bus and spent the night in a hotel.

A firefighter overcome by smoke and heat collapsed on Sunday. He was later evacuated.Credit...Rodger Bosch/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

By Sunday evening, a special-collections reading room at the university’s library had been gutted by the blaze, according to university officials. The reading room housed parts of the university’s African Studies Collection — which includes works on Africa and South Africa printed before 1925, hard-to-find volumes in European and African languages, and other rare books — as well as a treasured film archive, according to Niklas Zimmer, a library manager at the university.

By Sunday evening, a special-collections reading room at the university’s library had been gutted by the blaze, according to officials. Credit...Mike Hutchings/Reuters

The slopes of Table Mountain above Cape Town on Monday. Fanned by gusts of wind, the fire engulfed and destroyed a hillside restaurant and a mill before moving down to the university campus.Credit...Mike Hutchings/Reuters

“Some of our valuable collections have been lost, however a full assessment can only be done once the building has been declared safe,” Ujala Satgoor, executive director of libraries at the University of Cape Town, said in a statement.

: new york times