#CricketFire vs #CapeFire: the story of a fire and a One Day International

After a fire broke out in the Cape’s Southern Peninsula on Sunday, hundreds of Capetonians took to Twitter to share incredible photos from the fire and call for assistance. Some of the tweets started being grouped around the hashtag #CapeFire.

Read more: 61 astonishing photos of the #MuizenbergFire shared on Twitter

But on Tuesday South Africa’s national cricket team beat expectations after cricketers Hashim Amla scored 159 and Faf du Plessis grabbed a century. The Proteas (nickname for the cricket team) beat Ireland because of this and naturally had cricket fans around the world share their joy on Twitter with the hashtag #ProteaFire.

But because the indigenous plants destroyed in the Cape Town fire are also called Proteas, the fact that #ProteaFire starting trending at the same time as #CapeFire clearly had some people confused.

The #ProteaFire campaign is feeling a little ominous at the moment. #capefires #CapeTownFire #awkward

— Marco Russolillo (@MarcoRussolillo) March 3, 2015

So I guess #ProteaFire means something different now?

— Naweed (@i_tweet_words) March 4, 2015

Thanks to Memeburn’s friends at Twitter, we’ve been able to compare the two hashtags since Sunday. Since the cricket match was followed around the world, is shouldn’t be surprising that the ICC raked in more retweets than Wicus van der Merwe (owner of the top #CapeFire tweet) and Helen Zille’s tweets about the actual fire. Click on the individual tweets below to explore the most retweeted and liked tweets: