Table Mountain fire: Cableway back in business, despite damage to wooden boardwalk

• The fire that broke out on Table Mountain on Friday damaged parts of the wooden boardwalk at the upper cableway station.
• The cause of the fire is yet to be determined.
• Mop-up operations are currently under way.

The Table Mountain Aerial Cableway resumed operations on Sunday morning, although fire damage to sections of the wooden boardwalk at the upper cableway station after a two-day mountain blaze means this area will be closed to the public until further notice.

Wahida Parker, managing director of the Table Mountain Aerial Cableway Company (TMACC), said mop-up operations continued on Sunday morning.

"As of 08:20 on Sunday, our operations [were] able to resume. The temperature at the top of the mountain is mild and visibility poor. Some pathways at the top will be inaccessible due to fire damage," said Parker.

The cause of the fire is yet to be determined.

On Saturday night, SANParks said in a statement that aerial resources, consisting of a Huey helicopter and spotter plane, as well as ground crews, had to stand down just after 17:00 owing to cloud coverage which made it difficult to access water sources.

But by 18:00, the fire was "100% cleared" and mop-up operations were implemented.

The City of Cape Town said a group of 12 hikers became "overwhelmed" by the dense smoke and needed to be brought down from Platteklip Gorge.

"A female hiker was in a serious condition and needed to be airlifted for urgent medical attention. At 18:40 on Saturday evening, the incident was declared closed," it said in a statement.

Fire engines from both Roeland Street and Sea Point fire stations had responded to the blaze, which, upon arrival, was found to be high up and inaccessible from the road.

Table Mountain National Park (TMNP) was alerted, and their firefighting teams were deployed.

SANParks spokesperson Lauren Howard-Clayton said clean-up operations are expected to continue for most of Sunday.