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8 August 2025
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Featured FRI Magazine article: So, who is responsible for managing wildfires in the urban interface? Part one by Zane Erasmus
Are news headlines a product of sensation seeking media or is it a perception fuelled by social networking?
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The most important objective in the VUI is to ensure the safety of the community
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Metropolitan urban interfaces are found in the densely populated towns and cities throughout the country
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https://www.frimedia.org/uploads/1/2/2/7/122743954/fri_vol_3_no_7.pdf
This week’s featured Fire and Rescue International magazine article is: So, who is responsible for managing wildfires in the urban interface? Part one written by Zane Erasmus, independent environmental consultant (FRI Vol 3 no 7). We will be sharing more technical/research/tactical articles from Fire and Rescue International magazine on a weekly basis with our readers to assist in technology transfer. This will hopefully create an increased awareness, providing you with hands-on advice and guidance. All our magazines are available free of charge in PDF format on our website and online at ISSUU. We also provide all technical articles as a free download in our article archive on our website.
So, who is responsible for managing wildfires in the urban interface? Part one
By Zane Erasmus, independent environmental consultant
“Devastating wildfires destroy homes and thousands of hectares of veld”, the headlines scream. Is this scenario becoming more frequent? Are these headlines a product of sensation seeking media or is it simply a perception fuelled by active social networking?
It is difficult to say but what we do know is that wildfires certainly are becoming more frequent. Perhaps, Twitter and Facebook have enabled the public to spread news more rapidly and maybe the printed media have become more efficient at publishing wildfire stories that tend to make headlines more often. Climate change, though, is a fact and increased annual temperatures have impacted on the occurrence and spread of wildfires. At the same time, we have seen a growth of urban populations within areas prone to wildfires. It could thus be a combination of factors like these that has led to an increase, perceived or otherwise, of wildfires within the veld/urban interface.
An ‘urban’ area is any area that is populated in any way by people. A wildfire urban interface may therefore be defined as any area where homes or structures are constructed alongside, near or within an area that is exposed to wildfires.
Strictly speaking, an urban interface is not really an ‘area’ or ‘place’; it is a set of conditions that could apply in any wildfire-prone environment. These conditions may apply to an entire residential area or may only include three or four homes. These conditions exist throughout the world and are obviously not unique to South Africa.
What is quite unique, however, is the terminology used to describe the fire environment in each country. Many overseas countries refer to the wildland urban interface (WUI), where ‘wildland’ refers to any land that is undeveloped or cultivated in any way. In the United States, for instance, a definition for the WUI would be “the area where houses and wildland vegetation coincide”.
In South Africa, the term ‘wildland’ is not used extensively because we use the term ‘veld’ to describe land that is not built-up or inhabited. Indeed, the National Act administering veld fires is the National Veld and Forest Fire Act (101 of 1998) (NVFFA). It is thus appropriate to refer to the veld and urban interface (VUI) when referring to residential areas that border on open veld in South Africa.
Earlier literature, that addressed the growing concern about wild veldfires in developed areas in the Western Cape, made reference to an “urban fringe” that aptly described the veld/residential interface as a fringe.
The VUIs found in South Africa are almost as varied as the vegetation, topography and climate types found throughout the country itself. Aside from the obvious biophysical diversity, there is a vast variation in the social, cultural and economic aspects that influence our communities and inevitably the type of construction that takes place in fire prone environments.
VUIs will be found in all fire prone environments in South Africa, whether, agricultural, forestry or conservation land is involved. Fire managers, however, need to be aware of two distinctions.
Firstly, urban interfaces may be rural or metropolitan.
Rural urban interfaces are found in the country where isolated communities are exposed to wildfires almost every fire season. These may include small villages in the grasslands of the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal or villages in the open Savannahs of Mpumalanga and Limpopo. They are mostly isolated and do not have ready access to resources. Small communities generally survive on subsistence farming and are very often impoverished areas.
Metropolitan urban interfaces are found in the densely populated towns and cities throughout the country. Access to fire fighting resources is usually transposed against the large populations that can sometimes impact on the neighbouring natural areas. Fire ignitions can be more frequent but access is generally good.
The social history of South Africa has also seen the development of urban interfaces along economic lines. For instance, very wealthy developments take place in fire prone areas. These may include retirement homes, golf courses, tourist camps and recreational areas. Many developers are attracted to these areas because of the dense vegetation but seldom take veldfire risk into consideration in their development plans. While access to resources is not generally a problem, there is in these areas often a reliance on the fire brigades or other authorities, to provide fire management services.
Rapid population growth and the migration of people to metropolitan areas have seen the growth of vast ‘informal settlements’, usually on the outskirts of towns. This has created VUIs along the metropolitan and natural veld areas. These informal settlements, in many cases, do not have services like electricity and are reliant on open fires for warmth and cooking thus increasing the risk of wildfire ignitions.
Urban interface situations, as described above, exist in every fire protection association (FPA) registered South Africa. The challenges faced by veldfire managers, who are used to working within the parameters set by season, topography, climate, weather, vegetation and fuel loads, is intensified when an urban interface is included. Veldfires in an urban environment, however, present a whole range of considerations that are quite unique to the veldfire manager.
Firstly, there are people living and working in the area who are affected by the occurrence of veldfires. Secondly, the presence of structures within the area also present a range of issues not normally confronted in the conventional veldfire scenario. In addition, and most significantly perhaps, urban interfaces as a rule occur along boundaries situated between several different landowners. It is apparent thus that veldfire managers wishing to manage veldfires safely and efficiently within the urban interface would require additional management skills to manage these veldfires.
All managers know that you cannot manage anything without a management plan in place. Veldfires are no different and ‘managers’ need to know what to do, where to do it, when to do it and how to do it. Trying to manage veldfires without a management plan in place is like playing the proverbial game of football without any rules - or goals. Playing without these in place will lead to a fair amount of confusion, and certainly no goals will be achieved.
The most important objectives or goals in the VUI, is to ensure the safety of the community in the event of a wild veldfire. At the same time you would want to protect structures and reduce the incidence of wild veldfires spreading from the VUI into the open veld, or indeed, from the veld into the VUI. These goals and a multitude of secondary objectives can only be achieved in terms of an integrated veldfire management plan (IVMP). An IVMP, as the name implies, incorporates all landowners and stakeholders involved in the management of the urban interface. At the same time, it integrates all the activities that are essential to sound veldfire management practice. In other words, veldfire management is not only about veldfire fighting but includes all essential fire management activities such as for instance, fire prevention, fire protection, research, training, inspection, detection and so forth.
In the next publication, we will look at IVMPs in more detail.
Publisher’s note: FRI uses the term wildfires in its articles for the benefit of its international readership and continuity.
This week’s featured Fire and Rescue International magazine article is: So, who is responsible for managing wildfires in the urban interface? Part one written by Zane Erasmus, independent environmental consultant (FRI Vol 3 no 7). We will be sharing more technical/research/tactical articles from Fire and Rescue International magazine on a weekly basis with our readers to assist in technology transfer. This will hopefully create an increased awareness, providing you with hands-on advice and guidance. All our magazines are available free of charge in PDF format on our website and online at ISSUU. We also provide all technical articles as a free download in our article archive on our website.
So, who is responsible for managing wildfires in the urban interface? Part one
By Zane Erasmus, independent environmental consultant
“Devastating wildfires destroy homes and thousands of hectares of veld”, the headlines scream. Is this scenario becoming more frequent? Are these headlines a product of sensation seeking media or is it simply a perception fuelled by active social networking?
It is difficult to say but what we do know is that wildfires certainly are becoming more frequent. Perhaps, Twitter and Facebook have enabled the public to spread news more rapidly and maybe the printed media have become more efficient at publishing wildfire stories that tend to make headlines more often. Climate change, though, is a fact and increased annual temperatures have impacted on the occurrence and spread of wildfires. At the same time, we have seen a growth of urban populations within areas prone to wildfires. It could thus be a combination of factors like these that has led to an increase, perceived or otherwise, of wildfires within the veld/urban interface.
An ‘urban’ area is any area that is populated in any way by people. A wildfire urban interface may therefore be defined as any area where homes or structures are constructed alongside, near or within an area that is exposed to wildfires.
Strictly speaking, an urban interface is not really an ‘area’ or ‘place’; it is a set of conditions that could apply in any wildfire-prone environment. These conditions may apply to an entire residential area or may only include three or four homes. These conditions exist throughout the world and are obviously not unique to South Africa.
What is quite unique, however, is the terminology used to describe the fire environment in each country. Many overseas countries refer to the wildland urban interface (WUI), where ‘wildland’ refers to any land that is undeveloped or cultivated in any way. In the United States, for instance, a definition for the WUI would be “the area where houses and wildland vegetation coincide”.
In South Africa, the term ‘wildland’ is not used extensively because we use the term ‘veld’ to describe land that is not built-up or inhabited. Indeed, the National Act administering veld fires is the National Veld and Forest Fire Act (101 of 1998) (NVFFA). It is thus appropriate to refer to the veld and urban interface (VUI) when referring to residential areas that border on open veld in South Africa.
Earlier literature, that addressed the growing concern about wild veldfires in developed areas in the Western Cape, made reference to an “urban fringe” that aptly described the veld/residential interface as a fringe.
The VUIs found in South Africa are almost as varied as the vegetation, topography and climate types found throughout the country itself. Aside from the obvious biophysical diversity, there is a vast variation in the social, cultural and economic aspects that influence our communities and inevitably the type of construction that takes place in fire prone environments.
VUIs will be found in all fire prone environments in South Africa, whether, agricultural, forestry or conservation land is involved. Fire managers, however, need to be aware of two distinctions.
Firstly, urban interfaces may be rural or metropolitan.
Rural urban interfaces are found in the country where isolated communities are exposed to wildfires almost every fire season. These may include small villages in the grasslands of the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal or villages in the open Savannahs of Mpumalanga and Limpopo. They are mostly isolated and do not have ready access to resources. Small communities generally survive on subsistence farming and are very often impoverished areas.
Metropolitan urban interfaces are found in the densely populated towns and cities throughout the country. Access to fire fighting resources is usually transposed against the large populations that can sometimes impact on the neighbouring natural areas. Fire ignitions can be more frequent but access is generally good.
The social history of South Africa has also seen the development of urban interfaces along economic lines. For instance, very wealthy developments take place in fire prone areas. These may include retirement homes, golf courses, tourist camps and recreational areas. Many developers are attracted to these areas because of the dense vegetation but seldom take veldfire risk into consideration in their development plans. While access to resources is not generally a problem, there is in these areas often a reliance on the fire brigades or other authorities, to provide fire management services.
Rapid population growth and the migration of people to metropolitan areas have seen the growth of vast ‘informal settlements’, usually on the outskirts of towns. This has created VUIs along the metropolitan and natural veld areas. These informal settlements, in many cases, do not have services like electricity and are reliant on open fires for warmth and cooking thus increasing the risk of wildfire ignitions.
Urban interface situations, as described above, exist in every fire protection association (FPA) registered South Africa. The challenges faced by veldfire managers, who are used to working within the parameters set by season, topography, climate, weather, vegetation and fuel loads, is intensified when an urban interface is included. Veldfires in an urban environment, however, present a whole range of considerations that are quite unique to the veldfire manager.
Firstly, there are people living and working in the area who are affected by the occurrence of veldfires. Secondly, the presence of structures within the area also present a range of issues not normally confronted in the conventional veldfire scenario. In addition, and most significantly perhaps, urban interfaces as a rule occur along boundaries situated between several different landowners. It is apparent thus that veldfire managers wishing to manage veldfires safely and efficiently within the urban interface would require additional management skills to manage these veldfires.
All managers know that you cannot manage anything without a management plan in place. Veldfires are no different and ‘managers’ need to know what to do, where to do it, when to do it and how to do it. Trying to manage veldfires without a management plan in place is like playing the proverbial game of football without any rules - or goals. Playing without these in place will lead to a fair amount of confusion, and certainly no goals will be achieved.
The most important objectives or goals in the VUI, is to ensure the safety of the community in the event of a wild veldfire. At the same time you would want to protect structures and reduce the incidence of wild veldfires spreading from the VUI into the open veld, or indeed, from the veld into the VUI. These goals and a multitude of secondary objectives can only be achieved in terms of an integrated veldfire management plan (IVMP). An IVMP, as the name implies, incorporates all landowners and stakeholders involved in the management of the urban interface. At the same time, it integrates all the activities that are essential to sound veldfire management practice. In other words, veldfire management is not only about veldfire fighting but includes all essential fire management activities such as for instance, fire prevention, fire protection, research, training, inspection, detection and so forth.
In the next publication, we will look at IVMPs in more detail.
Publisher’s note: FRI uses the term wildfires in its articles for the benefit of its international readership and continuity.