Mulcher stops southern Cape wildfire

  • The Tigercat M726G wheeled mulcher creating a firebreak in old growth fynbos while the fire continues to burn in the background.

Quick thinking and quick action by an MTO forester and a mulching contractor stopped the spread of a wildfire that broke out in very old fynbos near Covie in the Western Cape recently.

MTO forester Koos Lourens called Clinton Payn of Savithi Mulching for assistance in stopping the fire that was threatening surrounding areas including rural dwellings and MTO’s Lottering plantation. Savithi has been busy in the area for several months clearing overgrown compartments for MTO that had been damaged in an earlier fire using a Tigercat M726G wheeled mulcher. It was a Sunday when most people are taking it easy, but quick action was needed to stop the fire before it ran away into the old growth fynbos.

Watch the Tigercat mulcher in action as it creates an emergency firebreak...

Aerial support was used to cool the fire down allowing the Savithi team to move in with the Tigercat mulcher to create a firebreak of around 1 km long and around 25 metres wide that ultimately stopped the fire in its tracks. The speed of the large and powerful wheeled mulcher was key in getting the job done quickly before the wind could pick up or change direction and turn it into a really dangerous spreading fire.

Clinton said the fynbos was so dense and high that the operator couldn’t see the ground he was mulching and in some places he had to assess the risks on foot to make sure there were no big holes or rocks that could damage the machine.

According to MTO forester Nico de Waal who was the fire boss, the fynbos in that area is around 25 years old and is well over head high, and creates a very hot fire. He said it is not possible to use ground forces to create a firebreak in those conditions, and so the best option was to bring in the mulcher which reduced the fynbos to a mulch carpet in buffer strips that stopped the fire in a matter of hours.

  • This aerial photo shows the strategic placement of the firebreak that stopped the wildfire from spreading.

Nico said that MTO has been busy working with other stakeholders including the Southern Cape and Sarah Baartman FPAs to do block burns in an effort to create strategic fire breaks that would prevent the spread of large, destructive wildfires such as those that occurred in the southern Cape in 2017 and again in 2018. He said that most of the wildfires come from beyond their boundaries and it’s part of their Integrated Fire Management strategy to fight any fire that has the potential to threaten their plantations, wherever they occur.

Clinton said there has been a lot of interest in utilising Savithi’s services to mulch fire breaks and reduce fuel loads in the southern Cape which has been plagued by big, destructive fires over the past few years. Another benefit of mulching is that it opens up areas to allow vehicle access for forestry operations or for fire suppression. Land owners and land managers in the region have realised that proactive action is required to reduce fire risk in this fire-prone landscape.

  • This is the Tigercat M726G wheeled mulcher operated by Savithi.


Preventing fires, planting trees & locking up carbon

  • Planting indigenous tree saplings at Platbos.

A partnership between Fogmaker South Africa and the Platbos Conservation Trust is contributing to the reforestation of the unique Platbos indigenous forest in the Western Cape. What these two very different organisations have in common is a desire to prevent unwanted fires, and a deep concern for the environment.

Platbos, situated between Gansbaai and Hermanus, is Africa’s southern-most indigenous forest. Surrounded by fynbos, cultivated lands and encroaching alien invasive jungles, this unique, ancient forest is under threat and needs active management to survive.

Although it is situated in a fire shadow area, wildfires have over the years been encroaching on the forest margins and threatening this sensitive ecosystem which is rich in biodiversity and contains many ancient trees, some over 1 000 years old.

The Platbos Forest Reforestation Project is an NPO that aims to expand and strengthen the forest by removing alien invasive vegetation from the forest margins and planting indigenous trees that are endemic to the area. This crucial work serves to protect the heart of the forest from encroaching wildfires, promotes biodiversity and sequesters carbon to counter global warming.

Fogmaker South Africa decided to get behind this initiative by donating a tree for every Fogmaker fire suppression system that they install in forestry machines during 2021.

These trees are grown in the Platbos tree nursery before they are planted out in selected areas around the Platbos forest. The Platbos reforestation team follows up, watering the young saplings and doing general vegetation maintenance to ensure their survival

The Fogmaker connection
Fogmaker SA are the licenced distributors and installers of Fogmaker fire suppression systems across Southern Africa.

Fogmaker automatic fire suppression systems are manufactured by Fogmaker International in Sweden. The systems are designed specifically to protect engine compartments of mobile equipment – including forestry equipment – to prevent engine fires that have the potential to destroy expensive equipment, injure the operators, interrupt work schedules and set fire to surrounding vegetation including plantations.

  • Fogmaker systems attack all three elements of the fire triangle.

Fogmaker systems attack all three sides of the fire triangle: oxygen, heat and fuel. When triggered by an engine fire the Fogmaker system produces a fine water mist. This water mist vapourises and expands when it comes into contact with any heat source and displaces the oxygen needed to sustain a fire. The water mist, containing a foam additive, discharges for more than 60 seconds and cools down hot surfaces, while forming a protective barrier on the surface of any flammable material, including fuel, to prevent re-ignition.

Fogmaker systems have been installed on a wide range of forestry equipment including harvesters, mulchers, chippers, forwarders and loggers, produced by leading suppliers like Hitachi, Tigercat, TimberPro, CAT, Bell and Pinoth.

See how the Fogmaker system extinguishes a simulated engine fire in seconds...

  • Forestry machine protected by Fogmaker system.
  • Fogmaker fire suppression system installed in a John Deere feller buncher.

Hard-working forestry machines are always at risk of fire due to the fact that the fine vegetative material (leaves and sticks) that tend to get caught up in the engine compartments have the potential to catch fire due to extreme heat. The risk is increased as the dry, winter fire season approaches in the summer rainfall areas of South Africa.

Fogmaker SA’s innovative CSI programme aims to support the cause of preventing unwanted wildfires, but also to contribute to the reduction of carbon emissions which are contributing to global warming and climate change.

Since 2008, the Platbos Reforestation Project team has planted some 89 000 trees, with help from organisations such as Fogmaker, thus making a huge contribution to sequestering carbon.

  • The Fogmaker tree planting team with Platbos director Francois Krige (extreme left).
  • Planting young trees to expand and protect the Platbos natural forest.

Last year Fogmaker supported the African Honey Bee Project by donating a bee hive for several Fogmaker systems installed in customers’ forestry machines. This is an innovative project that promotes bee farming and honey production among rural communities. It includes training in responsible bee keeping, in particular how to smoke out bee hives without setting fire to the surrounding vegetation. This is a frequent source of wildfires in forestry plantations around SA.

For more info visit:-
www.fogmaker.co.za
www.platbos.co.za
www.africanhoneybee.co.za