The 2021 Table Mountain fire (also known as the Rhodes Memorial fire or Cape Town fire) is a major fire that started on 18 April 2021 in and around

Table Mountain National Park Table Mountain National Park, previously known as the Cape Peninsula National Park, is a national park in Cape Town, South Africa, proclaimed on 29 May 1998, for the purpose of protecting the natural environment of the Table Mountain Chain, and ...

and the neighbourhoods of

Newlands Newlands may refer to: Places Australia * Newlands, Queensland, a locality in the Whitsunday Region New Zealand * Newlands, Wellington, a suburb of Wellington South Africa * Newlands, Cape Town, a suburb of Cape Town * Newlands, Johannesbur ...

, Rosebank, Mowbray and

Rondebosch Rondebosch is one of the Southern Suburbs of Cape Town, South Africa. It is primarily a residential suburb, with shopping and business districts as well as the main campus of the University of Cape Town. History Four years after the first Dutch s ...

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

. The damage to sites in the

Table Mountain Table Mountain ( naq, Huriǂoaxa, lit= sea-emerging; af, Tafelberg) is a flat-topped mountain forming a prominent landmark overlooking the city of Cape Town in South Africa. It is a significant tourist attraction, with many visitors using the ...

area included the

Rhodes Memorial The Rhodes Memorial on Devil's Peak in Cape Town, South Africa, is a memorial to the English-born South African politician Cecil John Rhodes (1853–1902). The memorial was designed by the renowned architect, Sir Herbert Baker. Location The mem ...

, where a restaurant burned down; the upper campus of the

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) ( af, Universiteit van Kaapstad, xh, Yunibesithi ya yaseKapa) is a public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university statu ...

(UCT), where the Special Collections library was gutted; and

Mostert's Mill Mostert's Mill (Afrikaans: ''Mostert se Meul'') is a historic windmill in Mowbray, Cape Town, South Africa. It was built in 1796 and was the oldest surviving complete windmill in South Africa. It was gutted in a wildfire on 18 April 2021. The fi ...

, a historic

windmill A windmill is a structure that converts wind power into rotational energy using vanes called windmill sail, sails or blades, specifically to mill (grinding), mill grain (gristmills), but the term is also extended to windpumps, wind turbines, and ...

that burned down. In addition, five firefighters were hospitalised.

Fire and response

The wildfire started on the morning of 18 April 2021 near Rhodes Memorial, Devil's Peak in Table Mountain National Park. Firefighters were alerted at . The fire was reported to have been started by a vagrant, and spread through old pine trees and debris, generating its own wind, towards the university campus and city. There was an extreme fire danger alert on the same day, with high temperature and low humidity. Initially, the resulting smoke and wind updrafts caused by the fire prevented aerial firefighting support from being deployed. Later, over 250 firefighters were involved in fighting the fire and four helicopters were used to drop water onto the fire. By 14:10 SAST, students at the University of Cape Town were evacuated. Official warnings were issued for hikers in the

Newlands Forest Newlands Forest is a conservation area, conservancy area on the eastern slopes of Table Mountain, beside the suburb of Newlands, Cape Town. It is owned and maintained by the Table Mountain National Parks Board, along with the City Parks Departme ...

area of Table Mountain National Park to also evacuate. At 16:05 SAST,

South African National Parks South African National Parks (SANParks) is the body responsible for managing South Africa's national parks. SANParks was formed in 1926, and currently manages 19 parks consisting of , over 3% of the total area of South Africa. Many parks offer ...

(SANParks) announced that the restaurant at Rhodes Memorial had been destroyed in the fire. The M3 road was also closed, with the fire spreading to the other side of it. On 19 April 2021 (8:00 SAST) homes in the

Vredehoek Vredehoek (Afrikaans: "corner of peace" or "peace corner") is a suburb of Cape Town, South Africa located in the City Bowl, on the slopes of Table Mountain, between Devil's Peak Estate and Oranjezicht. The suburb was proclaimed after the first w ...

Walmer Estate Walmer Estate is a suburb of Cape Town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It lies at the foot of Table Mountain and is bordered to the south by Table Mountain National Park, to the north-east by Woodstock and to the west by Zonnebloem. I ...

and

University Estate University Estate is a mainly residential suburb of Cape Town located at the foot of Devil's Peak to the east of the city. University Estate has the postcode 7925. Relation to other suburbs University Estate is bounded by the De Waal Drive to ...

area of Cape Town were evacuated as a precautionary measure. This included the evacuation of the

Disa Park Disa Park is one of the best-known pieces of architecture in the Vredehoek area of Cape Town, South Africa. The towers were built in response to a "white housing crisis" in the city and completed in 1969. By 15:00 SAST on , firefighters reported that the fire had been "largely contained".

Casualties and damage

Firefighters

On 19 April Western Cape Premier

Alan Winde Alan Richard Winde (born 18 March 1965) is a South African politician and businessman. He is the 8th and current Premier of the Western Cape, having held the position since 2019. He has been a Member of the Western Cape Provincial Parliament sin ...

stated that a total of five firefighters were hospitalised. At least four of them were hospitalised due to burn injuries.

Rhodes Memorial

The fire burnt down a restaurant at the Rhodes Memorial and its adjoining chapel.

University of Cape Town

More than six structures at the campus of the University of Cape Town suffered damage. Also affected was the special collections department of the UCT Libraries system, housed in

Jagger Library The Jagger Library (also known as the Jagger Reading Room, previously known as the J. W. Jagger Linear Library) was the main reading room of the University of Cape Town Libraries. The building was constructed in the 1930s, named after John Will ...

, part of the research wing of UCT's main library. Although a fire detection system prevented the fire from reaching the rest of the main library, the reading room of Jagger Library was gutted by the flames, and some of the rare collections in the special collections department, which held over 1,300 collections and over 85,000 books and other items, were likely lost. A later assessment found that a vast majority of the African Studies Published Print Collection (about 70,000 items) and the entirety of the African Studies Film Collection

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

s (about 3,500 items) had been destroyed, along with documents relating to the university itself as well as any manuscripts or archives being kept in the Reading Room for digitization or after being digitized, but that the rare and antique collections kept underground, including significant documentation and works of the San and

Khoi Khoekhoen (singular Khoekhoe) (or Khoikhoi in the former orthography; formerly also '' Hottentots''"Hottentot, n. and adj." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, March 2018, www.oed.com/view/Entry/88829. Accessed 13 May 2018. Citing G. S. ...

people who lived in the area in the 1870s, had been preserved. The H.W. Pearson building caught on fire, although the

Bolus Herbarium The Bolus Herbarium was established in 1865 from a donation by Harry Bolus of his extensive herbarium and library to the South African College, which later became the University of Cape Town. Its collection of specimens numbers over 320 000, mak ...

housed within narrowly escaped destruction and water damage. One of the damaged sections was the Plant Conservation Unit, which studies

fossil pollen Paleobotany, which is also spelled as palaeobotany, is the branch of botany dealing with the recovery and identification of plant remains from geological contexts, and their use for the biological reconstruction of past environments (paleogeogr ...

and compared historical photos of sites with the sites in the present day. Their photos are thought to have been digitized, and the sediment cores they were taken from were housed in a different area, but the fossil pollen lab itself was likely destroyed. The fire also caused substantial damage to Cadbol House and La Grotta (administrative buildings) and to the Upper Campus student residences Smuts Hall and Fuller Hall. A number of other buildings suffered minor damage.

Mostert's Mill

The fire also destroyed the

, the oldest working windmill in South Africa, built in 1796, and four thatched cottages behind it.

Newlands

The government reported that an unoccupied ministerial residence owned by the Department of Public Works and used by Labour Minister

Thulas Nxesi Thembelani Waltermade Nxesi (born 1 January 1959), popularly known as Thulas Nxesi, is a South African politician. A member of the African National Congress, he is the Minister of Employment and Labour. He was previously Minister of Public Wor ...

had been “completely destroyed”.

Aftermath

On , UCT vice-chancellor

Mamokgethi Phakeng Rosina Mamokgethi Phakeng (née Mmutlana, born 1 November 1966) is a South African professor of mathematics education who in 2018 became a vice-chancellor of the University of Cape Town (UCT), She has been the vice principal of research and in ...

suspended all academic activities for the following two days. On , Phakeng said students could return to their residences within 72 hours, with the exception of those who lived in either Smuts Hall or Fuller Hall. She added that restoring Fuller Hall to a habitable condition could take months. Most students were able to return to Smuts and Fuller Halls on .

Investigation

On at 20:10 SAST, a 35-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of starting the blaze but later released due to a lack of evidence. An investigation into the cause of the fire by South African National Parks concluded that the fire was most likely started by arsonists in throwing a fire starting object out of a vehicle.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Table Mountain fire, 2021 2021 meteorology 2021 in South Africa 2021 wildfires 2021 fires in Africa 2020s in Cape Town April 2021 events in South Africa Fires in Cape Town Table Mountain University of Cape Town Fire season 2021 Wildfires in South Africa