On Thursday the 12th May the Pilanesberg looked as if it was under attack! The distant drone of 6 Huey helicopters and 4 bomber aircraft signaled the beginning of the end.
The area of Hippo Loops had been set alight some 20 minutes before. The whole operation was organized by North West Parks and Tourism Board and Working on Fire for an International Conference on Fire which was being held for that week at Sun City.
With the approaching aircraft and the impressive sound that comes with it, one could not help but become a child again.
With the 6 choppers landing and preparing their monsoon buckets (capacity of 1 250 litres) for filling there were still the bombers flying overhead. In no time the choppers were up and off to Mankwe Dam some 100 meters away, we were right in the middle of it!
After a few onslaughts from the helicopters the bombers were called into action. With a payload of 1000 litres they lined up and came in low, really low, each bomber only having one chance to maximize its water bombing before heading back to Pilanesberg International Airport. Within 2 minutes the fire had been cut to half, the rest was now up to the helicopters. With the dying fire and the helicopters flying overhead we were again reminded how close we were to the action by the spray of water being released from the monsoon buckets.
The fire had been doused in just over an hour, very impressive stuff taking the terrain into account. It was off home after the display and as it has been said many times before, just another day in the office.
Mike Malan
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