South Africa clears towns due to wildfires

Firefighters battle wildfires in the Pringle Bay area. Pic/AP

Residents have been evacuated from small coastal towns near Cape Town in South Africa as wildfires swept down off surrounding mountains and burned out of control for a second day on Tuesday. Authorities ordered a full evacuation of Pringle Bay, a coastal village popular with holidaymakers about 80 km from Cape Town. That followed people evacuating parts of the nearby town of Betty's Bay on Monday.

The fires began Monday and were fueled by the hot, dry summer weather and strong coastal winds. Annelie Rabie, mayor of the Overstrand municipality that oversees the towns, said as many as six wildfires had broken out in the area.

This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever