MARIENTAL: Members of the Namibian Police Force (NamPol) in the Hardap Region and some fire-fighters on Sunday extinguished a veld fire at the /Huibes Conservancy after it raged for seven days.

The fire started last Monday, and destroyed areas such as /Huibes, Uibis and Docheib, located some 80 kilometres west of Mariental in the Gibeon Constituency.

NamPol’s Commander for Hardap, Commissioner Kobus Meyer confirmed to Nampa on Tuesday that the fire was finally put out, and no wild animals were reported to have died or been injured in the fire.

More veld fires were experienced last week on the Lapa Lange farm and the Hoachanas area near Mariental.

“All these fires were also extinguished, and now there are no more fires. There were also no humans injured since the fires started,” the Commissioner noted.

Fire-fighters estimated that about 120 kilometres of vegetation was destroyed.

The cause of the fires is still not known, but police suspect that honey-seekers might have started the fires, where they make fires to chase away bees to get access to their honey.

Another possibility could be a cigarette smoker, who might have thrown a lit cigarette away in the grass.

The /Huibes conservancy covers 122 417 hectares of land, and has a variety of wild animals such as kudus, leopards, oryx, ostriches, steenbok and jackals.