Devil's Peak Is Still Burning. And UCT Fails!

An update on the Devil's Peak Fire

We awoke this morning with the mountain still on fire. With much less wind, though, and no darkness to show the glow of fire... Devil's Peak looked more like a smokey fire pit than a majestic mountain. I again climbed onto the roof, and got a photo to share.

From our Observatory roof this morning.

With light this morning, however, we heard the familiar hum of several helicopters circling around the mountain dropping water. I immediately checked for more news, and learned that one person has died, and a few others were injured, including some firefighters with minor injuries.  Very sad, though.  Contrary to reports, it seems no houses have been reported damaged, though? I'm still not entirely confident about that. Partly because the news articles I've read are shoddy at best, and basically state that the mountain is on fire, there are helicopters helping, when it started, and that people are fighting it. Yes... thank you traditional media.

From the UCT campus, I climbed to Rhodes Memorial, which is reportedly near the start of the fire. I'm surprised nobody stopped me, but I just followed the emergency vehicles and a trail (please don't worry, I stayed safe). But I approached the tactical command of sorts, and was able to get some photos from right on the mountain, as well as the helicopters that were taking water from the University of Cape Town reservoir. I will post the rest  of the photos at the bottom (in higher res with captions).

The University of Cape Town Fails! No communication.

Also from this morning, UCT totally failed. I'm very unhappy with them. You'd think that they would issue some sort of communication to students regarding the events of last night, but no. We woke up, wondering if it was safe to go to campus, wondering how much smoke there would be now that the winds changed, and wondering if the helicopters would interfere with classes. I checked the UCT web site, I checked my course web site, I checked my email, I checked many different things... and nothing. Irritated, I began calling numbers to get some information, since Kara and Gabby had already not gone to their early morning classes because they were unsure. I ended up calling the Welcome Desk, Student Services, the Faculty of Humanities, my professor, the department office for my gender course, as well as the communications office. Many of the numbers yielded no response, but I did get through to someone at the information line, as well as my course's office.

"Yes, I'm wondering if there will be classes this morning?"
"Um... yes, I'm not sure why there would not be?"
"The huge fire that is still happening? Isn't it near Upper Campus?"
"I'm not sure, I'm on Middle Campus."
"And surely you represent the university, how could they not have a statement about what has happened?"
"You'll need to call your faculty department, son."

Dumbfounded, I made more calls. To more incredulous people, one of which noted, "Oh yes, there is a bit of smoke and the helicopters are overhead. I can't say about class though, you'll have to contact your professor."

I will first say this very clearly: UCT has an inadequate system for contacting and notifying students of important situations. The disorganization to me seems sort of dangerous, but then again, I was having a hard time finding people that shared the sentiments. So, we went, and once my professor arrived, she told the class that a few people called in today to ask if her class would be canceled because of the fire, and most of the class laughed. I was so many different types of pissed off. So many different types. Just incredulous.

So, for all of you people, my professor included, I'm going to present a list of reasons as to why one might think it possible for classes to be interrupted, or at least wonder enough to want an official correspondence from the university, or anything:

1. Your campus is built into the side of a mountain that was completely in flames last night. The fire and smoke could be seen for miles, from anywhere in the city. Surely one must wonder.
   
2. It was reported to have started just a few hundred feet from the UCT campus.
   
3. This morning, it was literally a five minute walk from campus to the flames.
   
4. There was a fire truck stationed on Upper Campus, next to a UCT building, supplying water at hose length to the front line. Yea.
   
5. One student said to the professor in class that he was evacuated last night. When students at your university are evacuated, no matter if they live with you or not, you should probably care and respond in some way.
   
6. There are now four helicopters flying near the campus, one of which belongs to the South African military, and they are drawing their water from the campus reservoir, and not flying very far to dump it.
   
7. Said helicopters are very loud, and the professor and students put energy into speaking over the whirring of the helicopter blades in class.
   
8. The mountain is still on fire.
   
9. Two UCT residence halls in Observatory were in the path of the wind and smoke, with Clarinus across the highway from the flames. These students live with you, you're responsible for them.
   
10. There is smoke directly up the mountain from Jameson Hall, with helicopters flying to drop water on it.
    
11. Even news sites speculated about the fire danger to UCT's campus, including reporting how close the fire had gotten. Students might wonder about this...
    
12. There's still tons of smoke to be seen from miles away.
    
13. The professor that said this was 10 minutes late to class because she had to drive across town, partly through smoke, and even changed her shirt when she arrived because it smelled of smoke.  Unaffected?
    
14. 20% of your students are international students, and may not inherently understand whatever it is I don't get about "Mountain on fire, go to class anyway to smell like smoke and talk over helicopters.  We're used to fire."

Maybe I'm missing something here, but this just doesn't seem like business as usual.  And it's not funny.

Despite these things:

• No press release, not even a mention on the web site.
  
• No email to students. (This should be easy.)
  
• No answers at many of the numbers I called on campus.
  
• The Humanities Faculty reception, especially, did not pick up.
  
• Communications office didn't answer.
  
• Information center acted dumb when I called, partly agreeing that one could be wondering, yet they had nothing to provide.
  
• No contact from the professor or answer at their office.
  
• AND the professor laughed at the idea of people calling the office to check if classes were still on. Then ended class with "Don't get burnt, don't get smoke inhalation."
  

So, we just went to class. And, again, I was so many different types of pissed off. Perhaps we overreact in the states about these things? But I don't think so. And 24 hours later, the mountain is still glowing a fiery red in the dark.  Devil's Peak, indeed.

And now for the rest of the photos: