A woman uses a garden hosepipe to battle a raging wildfire just metres from her home in Scarborough, Cape Town, South Africa, on the 22nd of December 2023. On the night of the 21st of December, a wildfire that had been blazing for the past three days sped towards the town of Scarborough, to the south of Cape Town, South Africa. Most residents left the town amid a general evacuation order but others chose to stay and help defend their homes from the flames, which were approaching from two sides. Between the hours of midnight and 2am, firefighters, volunteers and residents battled tirelessly to keep the fire at bay using everything from shovels to garden hosepipes. The Cape Town area sees numerous such fires each year, fuelled by high temperatures, strong winds and dry vegetation. A 2023 study published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society found that the likelihood of severe fires in the area had nearly doubled since 1880 as a result of climate change.