Farm Veld Fire and Honeybush Tea. Lessons learned.
One thing that a farmer will encounter at least once in their lifetime is a veld fire threatening the livelihood and financial viability of their farm and property. This was the case on our farm Toekomst where Agulhas Honeybush Tea is situated. The Fire Protection Association (GoFPA) sent out warnings about a fire ban that were instituted on 12 December 2024 due to a gale force wind that was predicted. Unfortunately, nature and power lines had other plans. A tree was toppled by the wind and landed on a power line which set a riverbed on fire. A riverbed that had an enormous fuel load due to flooding the previous 4 years, as well as invasive vegetation. Neighbours and the fire brigade were on scene quickly to assist. However, the fire continued burning underground in the riverbed for more than a week just to pop out again and again. This reached a critical point on Christmas Day (25 December 2024) when, yet another strong wind blew embers into thick alien vegetation ignoring the ground crews working diligently to extinguish the fire. By the 31 December 2024 half of our farm was destroyed by this fire. Fences were left in ruin and grazing temporarily made void. By the grace of our Heavenly Father the fire was stopped 28 meters in front of our home. None of our warehouses, sheds, vehicles, processing facility or plastic drying tunnels were damaged during this fire.
Many practical and logistical lessons could be learnt from this very traumatic experience that was basically our 2024 Christmas holiday. Just take note that this advice is from a farmer’s perspective in the Overberg, Western Cape Province. Different regulations and laws govern different provinces in South Africa. The landscape of our farm might differ greatly from other Honeybush Tea establishments or other farms. The advice in this article was helpful to our farm and situation. It might differ in your situation. It might be a good idea to use the tips, adjust to fit your situation and prevent this kind of trauma by being prepared. One never knows when these kinds of situations might present itself. We surely didn’t know…
Short-term insurance lessons regarding fire damage:
Ensure that your short-term insurance is up to date and applicable to the specific business or enterprise that you want insured. Not 9 months before this devastating fire, we changed insurance brokers to a broker that specializes in agriculture enterprises. She updated our insurance schedule to include various third-party aspects that our previous broker completely missed. Building estimates were updated and specifics were added to encompass our entire farm and business.
- When your area/province has helicopters and planes to assist with the firefighting efforts, the costs will be hundreds of thousands of Rands. This is where your insurance schedule must cover you by picking up the tab. If it is not covered in your insurance schedule beforehand, you will have to pay that invoice out of pocket. Air support during fires is not for free in South Africa. If you are lucky your province may pay the first hour, if not then be ready for a big invoice!
- Ensure that you are covered for third-party claims where a fire that started on your property damages or destroys your neighbours’ property. The fire on our farm was not caused by any fault on our part, but very few farmers have the capital to afford third-party claims. Our new insurance broker updated our schedule to cover these types of claims too.
- Ensure that your short-term insurance schedule includes an updated building estimate. If buildings and building content are burnt down due to a fire like the one on our farm, you need to rebuild the damaged/destroyed buildings from the insurance claim payout. If the insurance schedule has your buildings under-insured, you won’t be able to rebuild at the same scale as before. By the Grace of God no buildings were damaged by the fire on our farm. But the point still stands. Be prepared.
- Take photos while the fire happens. NO, IT IS NOT FOR SOCIAL MEDIA OR WHATSAPP STATUS UPDATES. The insurance broker needs proof of the fire as the fire progressed, to prove your claim after the fact. Quite a few of my photos and videos were available to prove the claim is legit and a true account of events that transpired.
Farming practices advice to minimize the spread of veld fires
- We plant our Honeybush as close to nature as possible. This means that our Honeybush grows between Fynbos. Unfortunately, this also means that alien vegetation is rife e.g. Pine, Port Jackson, Australian Myrtle etc. It is standard practice that our Honeybush Tea fields are swept of these alien vegetation species annually. It was key to stop the fire where alien vegetation was not present.
- It is paramount that fire breaks are maintained on an annual basis. All vegetation removed by hand MUST BE REMOVED FROM THE AREA. Why? Dry material during a veld fire burns exceptionally hot. A hot fire with a strong wind behind it tends to blow embers far and wide and jump fire breaks easily. The fire breaks are not only there to slow the spread of the fire, but they also serve as access roads for firefighting units and ground crews. You want it clear as much as possible to get assistance where needed in the shortest time possible.
- Maintain access roads as far as possible for fire units to access your property to assist the firefighting efforts. If the fire units can’t reach you, they can’t assist you fast enough before the fire spreads any further.
Other
- If your province/area has a Fire Protection Association (fire brigade for farms) become a member. Not only do FPA’s assist with expertise and equipment, being a member of an FPA means that you must be proven to be negligent in a court of law if you are being sued. If you are not a member of an FPA you are automatically presumed to be negligent in a court of law, and the onus is on you as individual to prove your lack of negligence in court, the only place in SA law that has a presumption of negligence.
- Have the Fire Protection Association’s ops room phone number on your phone ready to use in case of such a situation where you need to report a fire.
- Make sure that you are on WhatsApp groups that one can request assistance if urgent assistance is required.
- Ensure that the Fire Chief of the local Fire Brigade or Fire Protection Association is on these WhatsApp groups. It would cut response time down to a fraction of the time if the Fire Chief assesses the situation and sends units your way before you can yourself request assistance. Trust me, in a veld fire chaos, response time is very important.
- Have your firefighting unit easy to load on a bakkie or hitch to a tractor or bakkie during fire season. Response time during such a fire is crucial to prevent it from spreading fast.
- Have a good relationship with your neighbours. We received assistance from farmers across the district. The assistance from other farmers was crucial to prevent our home being burnt down. When our home was in danger, other farmers came to the rescue as at that specific moment in time half of the farm was on fire. Resources were spread thin.
- Have clearly marked, high flow water points for fire units to get water to replenish their units and tanks. Preferably have more than one water point. In our instance, one water point was burnt down at a critical point in the firefighting efforts and second one became crucial in the fight to get the fire under control.
NEVER SAY NEVER will something like this happen to me. Rather be prepared. Half of the battle is won with being prepared as much as possible.
This excerpt is based on first-hand experience and not a professional firefighter. However, I pray that these tips can make a difference in someone’s life.
Stay safe. Nina Joubert from Agulhas Honeybush Tea
