Ponies had to be hurriedly evacuated at the Grahamstown Riding Club on Sunday 8 June, after a runaway fire threatened to spread to their stables.
Ponies had to be hurriedly evacuated at the Grahamstown Riding Club on Sunday 8 June, after a runaway fire threatened to spread to their stables.
The Club is adjacent to the municipal rubbish dump, on the Cradock Road.
Claire Faddell is the owner of the Grahamstown Equestrian Centre, which is situated on the premises of the Club. She said she had returned from an out-of town event around 5pm and was shocked to see flames at the club’s fenceline.
“We called the fire department and they were slow, but they did come,” said Faddell.
They stopped the blaze from spreading, but were unable to extinguish the source of the fire – tyres burning at the dump’s periphery.
“They burn violently and for a long time,” Faddell said. “Balls of flame kept jumping across the road to the grass on our side.”
Faddell said the horses were “okay” but stressed.
“Horses suffer stress colic and other complications from smoke inhalation,” she said.
Residents reported high levels of smoke from the dump for much of yesterday.
Owner of nearby stables Siyabuya, Angela Liesenberg, told Grocott’s Mail today that while they weren’t directly in the line of the fire, they had been affected by the smoke.
She said the dump was still smouldering for much of today, although a change in wind direction meant it wasn’t affecting them as badly.
Photo: Stephen Penney
