Cape Town's Citizen Firefighters Guarding the Fynbos

Volunteer Wildfire Services has protected the Western Cape's fire-prone fynbos, water catchments and neighborhoods since it formed in the wake of Cape Town's devastating 1999/2000 fire season. Its 350-plus volunteers, more than a third of them women, operate from four stations and combine wildland firefighting with landowner training and school fire-education programs. The all-volunteer force has logged over 100,000 active firefighting hours protecting a region that saw more than 11,000 veld and wildland fires and 32,000 hectares burned in the 2024/25 season alone.