Lohatlha - A tragedy was narrowly averted last week when a Rooikat armoured vehicle got stuck in a ditch, was overrun by a veld fire and reduced to ashes during a military exercise near Lohatlha in the Northern Cape.

The driver of the vehicle and the rest of the crew tried in vain to get the vehicle out of the ditch.

Shortly before it went up in flames, the crew was ordered to leave the vehicle and run to safety.

The estimated loss was about R13m, brigadier general Nick Roets, commanding officer of 46 SA Brigade, said.

The incident happened during Exercise Seboka, the army's annual battle readiness programme in which more than 4 300 soldiers took part.

Roets said veld fires, caused by lightning, repeatedly occurred since the start of the exercises about two weeks ago.

The air force helicopters, which took part in the exercises, had to be used to fight the fires with Bambi water buckets.

About 100 of these enormous buckets full of water were used to prevent farms in the area from burning down. Each bucket can carry 2 000 litres of water.

Roets said the buckets were filled from all available water sources, including swimming pools.

With acknowledgements to Erika Gibson and the Beeld.