File:Garden Route wildfires, South Africa (MODIS 2018-11-06).jpg

English: Along the coast of South Africa stretches a verdant, vegetation-rich, and ecologically diverse ribbon of land known as the “Garden Route”. South of the arid Little Karoo and north of the Indian Ocean, this 200-km (124 mi) strip of land contains lakes, lagoons, forests, mountains, wildlife – and lots of people. The Garden Route is home to more than a half-million permanent residents and is also popular with tourists. With the rich vegetation, the region is also prone to wildfire.

On October 23, 2018, a fire was reported on the Outeniqua Mountain range near the town of George. Fanned by gale-force winds, the blaze quickly spread, forcing evacuations. It spread to a nearby town of Karatara, where eight people—two adults and six children—were reported killed by the blaze. Since that time, a number of fires along the Garden Route have flared, most caused by lightning strike and encouraged by high temperature, low humidity, and gusting winds, especially in rugged terrain.

As of November 5, more than 90,000 hectares (222,394 acres) have been charred by the fires. Rain and cooler temperatures on November 4 have been aiding firefighting efforts.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board NASA’s Terra satellite acquired a true-color image of the scene on November 3, 2018.