Constantia

In South Africa, they had conversations with descendants of upward of 65,000 slaves who were brought from East Africa, Malaysia and Indonesia, some of whom worked on Groot Constantia, a wine farm that is still operational.

Despite firefighters’ best efforts, the Sugar fire grew by more than 22,000 acres from Saturday into Sunday as it continued to behave erratically, at one point forming a fire whirl as it backed down an escarpment near the southern end of Constantia Road, Cox said.

At one point Saturday afternoon, a fire whirl was reported at the southern end of Constantia Road as the fire backed down an escarpment.

“So they went downslope into those canyons reaching Constantia Road and in that flat land over there toward the 395, it was basically creating its own weather.”

They also constructed indirect dozer lines along the northeastern flank of the fire, closer to the border with Nevada, to try and protect homes in the Constantia Road area, she said.