The province's fire fighters have had their hands full this weekend, as scorching temperatures across KZN resulted in a number of fires flaring up.

At least five blazes were reported in areas in the Midlands around Howick, Newcastle & Vryheid.

Working on Fire's Thuli Mtsweni says they had 23 firefighting teams on standby after a high fire danger alert was issued for KwaZulu-Natal.  

Temperatures in Durban and Pietermaritzburg peaked at 34 and 35 degrees.  

Mtsweni says all fires were contained and no injuries were reported.

She says this month alone, they've had to put out nearly 35 fires.  She says the low number of fires at the weekend though, shows that people are becoming more cautious.

"When the fire danger index is this high, we usually have more than 10 fires - as we did two weeks ago. But yesterday fortunately there were only about five fires," she said.

Meanwhile, Durban Weather Office forecaster Wisani Maluleke says although it was baking in areas like Pietermaritzburg and Zululand, they didn't expect Margate to fall in that category too.

"Surprisingly it was Margate that recorded the highest temperature of about 39 degrees," he said.