South Africa's Firefighter Mayor Battles Blazes for a Week

When massive wildfires tore through South Africa's Kouga Municipality last week, Executive Mayor Hattingh Bornman didn't just issue press releases from his office. He grabbed his old firefighting gear and joined the front lines.

For seven days straight, Bornman barely slept as fires destroyed thousands of hectares of farmland and homes across the region. The mayor who started volunteering at his local fire station at 16 never forgot his training, even as he climbed the political ladder.

Between coordinating emergency responses, Bornman made videos to update nervous residents in holiday towns like Jeffreys Bay and St Francis Bay. His deputy mayor Timothy Jantjies served as cameraman while Bornman joked with exhausted firefighters covered in ash and got drenched by water bombers. "Well, that is a free shower," he laughed in one viral clip.

The fires started when a tree fell on a power cable, then spread rapidly in bone-dry conditions and fierce winds. Three massive blazes erupted simultaneously across the municipality, stretching the region's 70 firefighters dangerously thin.

Bornman immediately opened a joint operations center and called for backup. Within hours of requesting 80 additional firefighters, 76 arrived from neighboring municipalities and Working on Fire teams. The reinforcements doubled their capacity overnight.

His firefighting background proved invaluable. "When I was 16, I worked night shifts at Humansdorp Fire Station through all of high school," Bornman recalled. "Many times I'd come home at 6am or 7am stinking of smoke and go straight to school."

Fire Chief Dewald Barnard led operations while Bornman cleared bureaucratic hurdles for fast financial decisions. The mayor also directed traffic, helped put out flames, and used his local knowledge to get crews onto private farmland quickly.

Why This Inspires

Bornman's hands-on leadership shows what's possible when elected officials remember they're public servants first. His humor kept morale high during the worst moments, proving that hope and hard work can coexist in a crisis.

The mayor's mother-in-law even called mid-crisis asking if he wanted his old firefighting overalls back from the farm. He laughed, but the gesture captured something beautiful about community memory and coming full circle.

After a week of battling flames, rain finally arrived across Kouga, bringing relief to exhausted crews and grateful residents who watched their mayor fight for them.