2015 Western Cape fire season

2015 Western Cape fire season
An aerial view of 2015 fires on the hills above Muizenberg.
Date(s)February 2015 - April 2015 (SAST)
LocationWestern Cape, South Africa
Statistics
Burned areaOver 11 800 ha
Land useAgriculture
Impacts
Deaths4
Non-fatal injuries56
Structures destroyed13
Damage>R11 million (ZAR, 2015)
Ignition
CauseArson, lightning

The 2015 Cape wildfires were a series of wildfires that burned across the Western Cape from February to April 2015. Major fires burned across the Cape Peninsula starting on 1 March in Muizenberg and burning until 9 March, when firefighters extinguished it. The fire resulted in 1 death, 56 injuries, over 6,900 hectares (17,000 acres) of burnt land, and 13 damaged properties, of which 3 were destroyed. The cause of the fire was later determined to be arson. There were also major fires near Wellington and Porteville starting in February, which claimed the lives of 3 firefighters and a fire in Stellenbosch that caused the evacuation of the University of Stellenbosch and burned over 2,900 hectares (7,200 acres) of land.