There’s a fire coming down the mountain, what do you do?

“We’ve been evacuated” read the the WhatsApp message that woke me up early this morning. My wife was letting me know that her, our 7 week…

“We’ve been evacuated” read the the WhatsApp message that woke me up early this morning. My wife was letting me know that her, our 7 week old baby girl and my mother have left my parent’s little farm, which now sits in the path of an out of control fire. A “wall of hell”.

Rushed message from my wife.

A long drought has dried out the vegetation and is fueling the notoriously devastating Western Cape fires that hit this South African province this time of year to unprecedented levels. In the last few weeks there have been stories of local authorities fighting over a 100 fires in a single day. In fact, my parents farm has faced three fires in the past week (one the night before last), but this one is the worst by far.

The local fire fighters are exhausted, their resources are drained, and there is a very real chance that the farm that my parents have put almost everything into will burn in the next few minutes or hours…

5:30 AM: The view from the shed. The cars are loading the chickens, ducks and geese to be taken to the nearby SPCA.

And me? I’m sitting in a coffee shop on the other side of the country trying to work out what to do. I could rush to the airport and get on the next flight to Cape Town, but by the time that I get home the fire would have been stopped, been diverted around the farm, or worse.

View of the fire from one of the neighbouring farms

This experience reminds me of the famous Thomas Edison factory fire. After the great inventor had been told that his factory was on fire he arrived on scene to see massive blue, green and purple flames — the result of the chemicals that he’d been experimenting with. With nothing he could do he apparently told his young son to go fetch his friends because “they’d never see a fire like this again”.

Edison then turned to one of his business partners and said something along the lines of “don’t worry, it’s burning all of the rubbish. We can start over”. After the fire they did start over. In a short space of time Edison had rebuilt his factory and had grown his business to much greater heights than before.

This story of Edison shows his understanding of what he could control, and what he couldn’t. Similarly, it helps me understand what I can control and what I can’t.

What I know is that my wife, child and mother are safe. That’s what’s important.

Mother and the dogs. Safe. Waiting. Hoping.

The farm can be re-built — maybe even better than before.

For now I’ll continue to sit here waiting for updates. I’ll continue to contemplate what-if scenarios about what I’d be doing if I were there but will do so knowing that I’m not there and there isn’t much I can do other than wait and pray.

What do you do when there’s a fire coming down the mountain? you do what you can, nothing more.

Update: 8:05am — The fire seems to be under control. Things are still tense, but we are optimistic.

Update: 6:30 PM — The fire is still burning on and around the farm. Teams are still fighting. I am on the way to Cape Town to go help.

Update: Thursday 19 Jan 2017 (two days since the fire started) — The fire is finally out (for now) and all the people and animals have been returned to the farm.

I arrived back at the farm at around 11pm on Tuesday night. Although the fire was under control we ended up monitoring and extinguishing flare-ups in the nearby forest until around 3:30am the following morning.

The next day was spent monitoring the fire in the distance and completely killing all the smoldering and still burning patched.

It is worth mentioning how fantastic the professional the volunteer firefighters have been. Despite being physically and mentally exhausted and broken, everyone has been friendly and committed to completely extinguishing the fire.

Below are some photos that were taking that evening and the next day:

The scene that I arrived back to

Scott dealing with a burning patch

Burned vines

Small fires in the remaining forested areas the next day

Another fire in the distance

Joel spraying the smoldering ground

Fire trucks responding to a flare-up

There were choppers in the air all day Wednesday