Admonished by frenemies over on the Grape communal blog for not blogging about the tragic death of a firefighter at Pearly Beach several days before Elgin wine pioneer Paul Clüver III was injured in a different fire on his De Rust Mountain Kingdom of Wine (Grape were unfortunately on holiday and missed the whole thing), I am spurred on to update my coverage of the dreadful series of Overberg fires that have devastated the region’s fynbos in the Kogelberg Biosphere, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and part of the Groenland Conservancy. Let’s start with a photo of the Greyton fire taken by California winemaker Samantha O’Keefe from the stoep of her Lismore Estate.

Paul III discharged himself from hospital in Somerset West on Monday (confirming the diagnosis that doctors make the worst patients) only to have to return this morning for further treatment to his left arm and hand which are the worst of his injuries.

This on the fire itself from the farm: “Fire fighting teams battled through the night and the first few days of the new year to keep the flames away from vineyards and orchards. Smoke damage to the higher lying Sauvignon blanc and Pinot noir vineyards does not seem to be a problem at this stage. Harvest 2010 is expected to commence third week in February. ‘The prevailing wind blew the smoke away from the vineyards and as the grapes are either pre-veraison or going through veraison, we should be fine’ said winemaker Andries Burger. ‘But to confirm this, we will send grapes off for testing in the next month.’

Sadly the greatest damage appears to be to the conserved fynbos. ‘Some species which were thought to be extinct have only recently been rediscovered in our mountain fynbos – in particular the Erica patens. We hope we have not lost this rare flora’, said Paul Clüver IV.”

Fynbos devastation on M'KoW

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