Hundreds battling wildfire near Cape Town in South Africa

Cape Town [South Africa], December 21: Hundreds of firefighters were battling a wildfire for a second day Wednesday on a mountain near Cape Town, the legislative capital of South Africa.
The wildfire started on Tuesday on the mountain slopes near Simon's Town, around 40 kilometers south of Cape Town and part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality.
"Currently, firefighting efforts continue in Simon's Town, involving city staff but also numerous other agencies," said a statement released Wednesday on the official website of the city government.
"As things stand, more than 200 firefighters are still on the ground in Simon's Town, along with a fleet of city firefighting equipment including 20 pumps, four water tankers and four skids," it said.
Five firefighters have been injured and two of them have been taken to hospital, local media quoted the Cape Town city fire and rescue department as saying.
While nearly 40 nearby houses were evacuated in the early hours of Wednesday, the fire also put the Naval Base Simon's Town -- South Africa's largest naval base -- under threat and damaged one derelict building on its grounds, said the department.
According to the statement, the fire is not yet contained, but the situation is more "manageable."
"The cause of the fire is not yet known," said the statement.
Wildfires often break out on the mountain slopes around Cape Town in the hot, dry months from November to April.
They become dangerous and unpredictable when they are fanned by strong coastal winds, which officials said had contributed to the Simon's Town fire.
The city fire service has responded to more than 2,500 incidents since the beginning of December, with 60 percent of them being vegetation fires, said the statement. "It's also an increase year on year."
Source: Xinhua