Cape fires scare Steyn

Times Media

TELFORD VICE, Auckland

THE veld fires that ravaged the Cape’s mountainsides this week were anxiously monitored by SA’s cricketers at the World Cup - some of whom’s homes were threatened by the blaze.

Dale Steyn, Faf du Plessis and Jacques Kallis all live on the same estate in Cape Town. But while Kallis, who has retired from international cricket, was able to tend to his property himself, reportedly by training a hosepipe on his lawn, Du Plessis and Steyn could only watch from afar and hope everything would be OK. Happily for them, it was.

Steyn spoke on Friday of the stark choices he faced when the fire came too close for comfort.

“I had left my phone on silent that night, so when I woke up that morning I had about 80 messages and 30 missed calls,” he said. “I realised the fires were a lot closer to my home than initially thought.”

Steyn said the “scariest part” of his experience was when “the people looking after my house called me and said, ‘Listen, you’ve got five minutes - we’re evacuating. What do you want us to take out of your house?’

“I’ve never been more scared in my life. I’m sitting halfway across the world and everything that I’ve ever earned or gotten in my life - every wicket, every ball, every bit of clothing in my 31 years - is in that house.

“What do you tell this person? They’ve got five minutes to take everything out. I was pretty much shitting myself.”

Steyn was appreciative of firefighters’ efforts to beat the blaze, and offered the victims empathy.

“It was a tremendous job by all those firefighters and the volunteers who put their lives at risk and have never met me and never met most of the people (affected).

“They were throwing themselves at it and putting out those fires. Jacques’ house, his lawn was on fire. If I was at home I'd dive straight into it and do what I can to help.

“It really is terrible. A lot of animals, pets, homes were affected. Nobody should go through that kind of stuff. It’s a pretty tough time back home right now.”

The fire raged from Muizenberg to Hout Bay across some 3000 hectares of the Cape’s south peninsula, forcing the temporary evacuation of hundreds of residents.