Watching in horror as their homes were razed to the ground

TALI FEINBERG

“What were we thinking,” said Ariella Kaplan, who described what had happened to her, her family and once beautiful eight hectare Plettenberg Bay farm during the worst fires and winds the region has ever seen.

“Looking back, it was a totally ridiculous thing to do under the circumstances. We were not thinking clearly at all.”

Nothing could adequately prepare her and her husband Clive for what greeted them when they went back to view the damage to their property.

“All that’s left is a blackened wasteland. Our house had been obliterated. The guest house was nothing but a burnt-out shell. The only remaining area was my mother’s flatlet, her kitchen melted… her dining room table stood unscathed and on it stood a Siddur and Kiddush cup which she had been planning to take, but got left behind in the last minutes.”

That happened last Saturday, three days after multiple fires began to rage across the Garden Route, destroying homes and creating an unprecedented humanitarian crisis in the area.  

On the second day (Thursday) of the fire, Ariella, her children, her mother and her animals, had been evacuated from the farm after a harrowing night.

Clive was in Johannesburg for work. The family returned to their then unscathed property the next day, thinking their ordeal was over. Alas, it was just beginning.

On Saturday morning, despite it being a beautiful, still and sunny morning, Ariella felt a “restless energy” and didn’t want to unpack, as there had been a warning of expected high winds.

She suggested to Clive – who had returned – that they go help their friends, Erez and Louisa Shneor clearing their home which had been destroyed.

“As we were leaving, the wind was starting to pick up. When we turned out of our gate and headed down Airport Road, we saw a huge blaze had started up behind the airport and in the direction of the Shneor’s house. Rescue vehicles were rushing to the scene.”

“I kept saying to Clive that we needed to head home in case we were not able to get home.”

After just 25 minutes away from home, she says: “We drove on past our gate and as we rounded the bend we saw a huge blaze. The wind speeds were crazy and it was driving this monster towards us. We rushed home, threw our bags, dogs and cats into the cars. My mom and Lizzy (our domestic worker) were packing furiously. “We tore out of there, with all souls accounted for, only to be told that the road was closed on both sides and we were directed to turn into an open farm field. We drove our vehicles across the neatly ploughed rows and sat in the middle of the field to wait it out with about 60 other cars. 

“One would think that we were safe on this open land with no vegetation around us, but after a few minutes a wall of fire was approaching and we were urgently evacuated again and moved to the airport landing strip. 

“But there too, the flames were approaching from the other direction, so we were moved to an area between the hangars.  The wind and smoke was indescribable.

“We sat and watched in horror as the flames got higher and higher. Each time the smoke turned black, we knew another house was taken.

“On Monday morning we took the children to school to try and settle them back into some sort of routine as quickly as possible. Clive and I were then ready to go and take a proper look at what was once our home. We weren’t expecting much, we were just grateful that we are all alive, having made it out with roughly 10 minutes to spare,” says Ariella.

Their friends, the Shneors, also lost their Plett home and farm to the fires. Erez describes how they had initially felt safe, and spent time transferring all of their precious belongings to a large shed which they thought would be safe.

They had just completed this evacuation and were going to leave to help others, when a fireball from a tree landed on the roof of the shed, destroying all of their belongings and Erez’s tools and machinery which he needs for his work as a builder.

As they fled to safety, Erez said the fire was like “the cutting of a cake” – it just kept taking more and more. They are currently sharing a nearby home with another family, and are grateful to be safe and in a house.

Tanya and Derek Kushner live on Thesen Islands in Knysna – one of the few safe havens – when the fires broke out, recounts Tanya. Like other island residents, the Kushners opened their home to evacuees. They also faced suffocating smoke, power failures and limited water, and after a few days decided to evacuate because the smoke was too overpowering.

In a series of WhatsApp messages, Tanya described the scene to family as it unfolded: “I cannot believe the goodwill of the people – everyone is helping, giving and sharing.”

Johannesburg couple Taryn Kahn and Graham Ziegler were in Plettenberg Bay on holiday to celebrate Taryn’s birthday, and fled the fire with their lives. On the evening of Wednesday, June 7, they went out for dinner to celebrate her birthday, and returned to their holiday home (which had no power since the fires broke out), setting alarms on their phones to wake them to check if the fire was close.

Graham awoke suddenly before his alarm went off, and saw that the fire was 200 metres away. The couple dashed to their rental car with minimal possessions, and tried to drive away on the main Robberg Road, which was engulfed in flames.

They then took a dirt road through the bush, and eventually abandoned their rental car and ran down to the beach. They made their way to a highway where they were picked up and taken to a place of safety, which was later evacuated.

That evening they returned to their holiday home, which had been surrounded by fire but miraculously not damaged. The rental car had also survived

Dr Merle Friedman lost her entire Knysna home to the fire. A trauma counsellor herself, she says the effects of losing one’s house are more overwhelming than she ever imagined.

Shammas of the Plettenberg Bay Shul, Mendel Winer, also had to evacuate, but says he is lucky that his house is still standing. He travelled to open the Plett Shul before Shabbat.

Famed Jewish artist Beezy Bailey, was sent a haunting photo of his holiday home burning to the ground. In a Facebook post that has since gone viral, Bailey wrote: “I’m more interested in how beautiful this photo is of my Plett house on fire than sad. I’ll do a painting of it.”

He added: “Let us unite in times like these, something we South Africans are so good at, and pick ourselves up by our boot straps and rebuild broken hearts, homes and lives together.”