More than 120 firefighters are battling the massive fire, and four helicopters have been deployed to help with the efforts, according to a media statement shared by a Twitter account associated with the park.
“The fire created its own wind which further increased the distribution. The excessive amount of smoke and related surges made it impossible to slow down the distribution of the air,” the park added.
The statement said that the Rhodes Memorial Restaurant had burned down and that the fire had also spread to the field above the high campus of the University of Cape Town.
One woman in the park said she was “trying to put out the fire” in a video posted on Twitter, which showed a plume of smoke in the background. In a later tweet, Lisette Lombard said she was safe, but her car was ‘destroyed’.
“I have never experienced a fire that spread so unpredictably fast. I have so much respect for our firefighters,” she added.
The cause of the fire that broke out on the slope of Table Mountain on Sunday morning is unknown, Jermaine Carelse, spokesperson for Cape Town’s fire and rescue service, told CNN.
Authorities were notified locally at about 2.45am (2.45pm ET) and are currently fighting the blaze, which is being blown by winds, Carelse said.
The fire spread from the area of Philip Kgosana Drive, which borders Table Mountain National Park, to the Rhodes Memorial, which continues in the direction of University of Cape Town buildings, Carelse said.
The National Park’s Twitter account earlier Sunday requested that bystanders ‘not enter the area and keep the area open so that emergency vehicles can pass’, as the fire is ‘out of control’.
It added that all hikers in the Newlands and Rhodes memorial area should evacuate with immediate effect.