Western Cape emergency services are hoping for a more successful firefighting season this year.
They'll be relying heavily on new equipment that has just arrived from Spain.
The Air Tractor 802 water bombers are set to drastically reduce the time it takes to get raging veld fires under control.
Runaway vegetation fires have become an all-too-familiar occurrence across the greater Western Cape during fire season.
Last year, a raging veld fire burned out of control for 12 days, while firefighters worked around the clock to contain the blaze.
Disaster management officials are now fine-tuning their preparedness plan in anticipation of wildfires this holiday season.
"What we then try to do is respond in the first hour to a fire with four aircraft so that we can try and contain the fire and hopefully put it out in the first hour," said Colin Deiner of Western Cape Disaster Management.
"We work together with the district disaster management centres and fire services. They basically have the ground forces, the firefighters on the ground. It's an integrated approach. You've got to have the air component and you've got to have the ground component."
Disaster management workers are more confident of a successful firefighting season this year thanks to two new Air Tractor 802 water bombers.
They form part of national government's Working on Fire fleet - at a cost of around R13 million each.
The aircraft will be added to a fleet of 26 being deployed to the Western Cape from elsewhere around the country.
"These aircraft are obviously very fast but they're also recognised all over the world as one of the most dynamic instruments you can use in combating fires all over Australia, the US, in Europe. In fact we've purchased these aircraft from Spain," said Trevor Abrahams of Working on Fire.
"As you've seen, one is already here. The other one is down next week, flying in on Wednesday from Spain and these aircraft are the leading aircraft in fighting fires all over the world."
Fire officials say they are hoping these planes will go a long way in improving on the 2011/2012 wildfire season success rate of about 90%.
See video: HERE
-eNCA
