Dale Steyn reveals scary moments when he heard about fires near his house
South Africas’s pace spearhead Dale Steyn has revealed that he felt very uncomfortable sitting in his hotel room in Canberra when raging wildfires were causing havoc in his hometown of Cape Town back in South Africa. Wildfires ripped through the South African city on Sunday and the 31-year-old said he was particularly frightened when he heard that they were perilously close to his house located over there.
An estimated 7000 acres of land were destroyed due to the fires with five houses reportedly burnt.
Steyn was a worried man
“It wasn't easy. I was actually staying in Canberra and I had left my phone on silent that night. So I woke up that morning and had like 80 messages or something, 30 missed calls. So I quickly jumped on it and realised the fires were a lot closer to my home than initially thought,” Steyn said at a press conference.
“I'm sitting halfway across the world, and everything that I've ever earned or gotten in my life, every wicket, every ball, every bit of clothing in my 31 years is in that house. So it was pretty scary to think 'what do you tell this person?' They've got five minutes to take everything out. I was pretty much shitting myself.”
He further added that he felt most scared when he got a call from home and was informed that they were leaving the place immediately. He was asked about his most essential belongings.
"The scariest part came about 3:30 in the morning in Cape Town. I don't know what time it was in Canberra. But the people looking after my house called me and said, 'listen, you've got five minutes? We're evacuating. What do you want us to take out of your house?' I've never been more scared in my life,” he said.
Steyn praises firefighters
The SunRisers Hyderabad cricketer lavished praise on the outstanding work done by firefighters to help rescue citizens from the fire. He also said that former South African all-rounder Jacques Kallis’s house was also on fire and added that had he been over there, he would’ve done everything he could to save the lives of the people.
"Just a tremendous job by all those firefighters and the volunteers that put their lives at risk. (They've) never met me before, never met most of the people.They were just kind of like throwing themselves at it and putting out those fires.
“You've got Manners sitting over there and I'm sure he was as nervous as I was. Jacques' [Kallis] house, his lawn was on fire. If I was at home I'd dive straight into it and do what I can to help. It's really is terrible. A lot of animals, pets, homes, nobody should go through that kind of stuff. It's a pretty tough time back home right now,” the speedster said.
Here’s a tweet from Steyn’s teammate Faf du Plessis containing an image of the fires.