Since the start of winter, there have been a number of fires across Johannesburg, prompting the Emergency Management Services (EMS) to host a Winter Fire Safety Campaign.
The campaign which was introduced at the beginning of June, seeks to educate residents about safety measures and precautions against fire incidents.
The EMS urged residents to be careful when using cooking and heating equipment such as paraffin stoves and braziers or “imbawula” - a makeshift coal stove made out of a large tin with holes in the side which need to be used in well ventilated areas. People are reminded to take them out of the house before going to sleep.
The dangers of fire were underlined when a 6-year-old died after a fire burned down a double-storey shack in Alexandra this week.
A week ago, firefighters responded to a flat on fire in Eldorado Park Extension 2 on a Sunday at around 8pm. No injuries were reported and the cause of the fire is still the subject of investigations.
The EMS also raised concern about fire hydrants being stolen or vandalised making it hard for firefighters to do their work.
This week, the EMS visited Tladi Camp in Soweto to educate the local community about safety measures. EMS media Liaison officer, Xolile Khumalo interacted with some of the residents, including Prudence Sibiya.
“We have received much knowledge from campaigns of this nature, these campaigns are pivotal. Because accidents do happen and one needs to know how to react in a good way to save lives. Fortunately in our area, there had not been a fire disaster, when it burns it happens at isolated shacks,” she said.
Sibiya said where there had been outbreaks of fire, they were due to people leaving candles unattended or leaving lit paraffin stoves unattended.
Another resident, Lungile Shabalala, said that by taking such campaigns to people’s backyards, the EMS was educating communities.
Khumalo said it was still too early to gauge the success of the fire campaign which was ongoing until the end of July, when their statistics department would compile data: “Only at the end of the campaign will we know whether it has been successful or a lot still needs to be done. This would be known after we look and compare the number of incidents between this year and last year.”
She said the community’s reaction to the campaign varied. Some people were eager to be educated while others were reluctant to interact with them; as EMS, they never get discouraged since it was their job is to inform the community about preventive and precautionary measures.
The EMS teams will visit Diepsloot, north of Johannesburg, on Saturday. Diepsloot is a township where many homes are built close to each other, and there have been fire incidents which led to loss of lives.
The EMS teams will also visit areas such as Alexandra, Jerusalem Informal Settlement, and many more areas.
The teams remain on high alert monitoring all seven regions targeting the most vulnerable communities in the informal settlements, to ensure effective response to emergencies which might occur during the extremely cold conditions.
All 29 fire stations are fully operational to deal with all emergencies that might occur during this cold front, Khumalo added.
For any life threatening emergencies, residents are urged to call the emergency call centre on 011 375 5911.
The Star