Fire season is here and our dam levels are 15% lower than a year ago: is your home ready?

The Western Cape Government is planning for an eight month fire season this summer, from October 2026 through to May 2027, rather than the usual four. Behind that decision sits an unusually dry winter, a strengthening El Niño and dam levels well below where they were a year ago, and all three point the same way: the vegetation around our homes is drier than usual, and it will stay that way for longer.

The practical question is what you do between now and December. Almost all of it is ordinary work, it costs very little, and it is far more effective done in advance than attempted on a day when the wind is already up.

Why this season carries more risk

Cape Town International Airport recorded 14.4mm of rain in July 2026, its lowest July in 68 years, and the South African Weather Service expects below normal rainfall and above normal temperatures over most of the country from October 2026 to January 2027.

The dams tell the same story. On 23 October 2026 the City’s dams stood at 74%, against 89.7% in the same week last year, and just this week the Western Cape Government advised municipalities to bring in precautionary Level 1 water restrictions by 15 November. Dam levels are not what decides whether a fire starts, but they are a fair measure of how dry the landscape around us has become.

What this means for your property

A longer, drier season changes three things for anyone who owns property on or near the urban edge.

1. More days on which a fire can start. High fire danger days become more frequent, and on orange and red days the National Veld and Forest Fire Act prohibits open air fires altogether;
2. Hotter, faster fires when one does start. Dry fuel carries flame quickly, and embers can travel well ahead of the fire front;
3. A longer window of exposure. Eight months instead of four roughly doubles the period in which an unprepared property is vulnerable.

Last season, 215 000 hectares were lost across the Western Cape in December 2025 alone, which MEC Anton Bredell described as the worst season since 1997. The properties that come through a season like that are almost always the ones that were prepared before the first hot, windy week.

Getting your property fire ready

Most of what protects a property is risk reduction, the part of integrated fire management that falls to the owner rather than the agencies. The essentials:

• Keep a cleared buffer of at least 20 metres around any buildings, using lawn, paving, gravel or well spaced low plants rather than dense shrubs;
• Prune lower branches to about two metres off the ground, and keep branches that distance clear of the property;
• Clear gutters, roof spaces and the space under decks, since that is where embers settle;
• Remove invasive pines, eucalyptus and wattle where you can, as they burn hotter and for longer than indigenous fynbos;
• Make sure a fire engine can reach the property, turn and get out again.

On an estate or in a complex the boundary vegetation is usually the body corporate’s to manage, so that is where to raise it. The CPFPA’s defensible space guide explains exactly how much to clear and where, and their wildfire management pages cover how the season is run across the metro.

Who to contact

Your CPFPA ward manager is the person to ask about heavier work such as large scale alien clearing or firebreaks. For estates, developments and larger holdings, the NCC-Group draws up Integrated Wildfire Management Plans, which map the risk areas on a property and set out firebreak, equipment and planting guidance.

To report a fire, City of Cape Town Fire & Rescue can be reached on 021 590 1900.

We cannot promise a quiet summer, what we can say is that the difference between a property that is prepared and one that is not tends to show up in a single afternoon.

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