Beauty VS. Sorrow in Knysna, South Africa

in #teamsouthafrica7 years ago (edited)

Recently in the news, was the very unfortunate event of the incredible destruction that rogue veld fires can inflict.
This happened in the most beautiful area in South Africa, in the Eastern Cape Province.

The veld fires caused huge amount of financial losses, and tragically a few lives, including a firefighter.
This happened on 7 June 2017, and the fire burn a stretch of 300km, for about 2 weeks.

I visited the area in July 2017, and stayed over in Knysna with one of my friends living there.
He took us through Knysna with his car and showed us the astonishing devastation the fire caused inside the town.
According to latest updates, 1059 houses were destroyed in Knysna.

It was really an eye opener for me, as I have seen many fire in my life!
But this really shocked me to see that fires can ''jump'' over areas where you thought is was totally impossible!

I had the opportunity to talk to one of the people living a house, (this house was the only house standing and almost untouched in a cul de sac surrounded by 9 totally destroyed houses)

I am adding some photos to show the contrast between the beauty of Knysna, and the total destruction within 2 weeks.

Some residents have already started with the rebuilding process of their houses, and some houses still lies as a heap of ash.

Please people, be thankful for what you have, some of these unlucky Knysna residents only have the clothes on their back, not even a photo as memory of their belongings.

Hope you have a wonderful day

Charl

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Photos of Knysna city are really beautiful. But the news of veld fire is tragic.

These photos can not really show the beauty of this place!
But yes, 1059 houses in one town distroyed is terrible!

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Very nice photos but that beautiful town did have bad fires so sorry.

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Knysna is a beautiful place, sad for all the people that lost everything due to this tragedy, but thank you for reminding us to be thankful. Keep up the good posts @boldphantom

@boldphantom , there is nothing that is as dangerous as a forest or veld fire that is boosted by a strong wind, i mean there is literaly nothing you can do to stop it, because it jumps road, runs over mountains. I have been on some big veld fires and it is tiring, exiting and devastating at the same time, my heart go's out to all the people who lost loved ones and lost everything that day

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