Joburg to benefit from fire safety kit handover
JOBURG - Jozi to roll out fire safety kits to fire-prone communities.
Alexandra residents will be among the many beneficiaries of the Jozi Safety Kit.
The distribution of the kit is an initiative of the City of Johannesburg Emergency Management Services (EMS). It was introduced to communities in 2009 in an effort to reduce the number of fire incidents and fatalities within the most vulnerable communities – the informal settlements throughout the city.
The kit consists of a para-safe stove (which extinguishes itself in the event of excessive movement), smoke detector (which serves as an early warning system), a burns kit (to treat minor burns), a lantern light and a 25l bucket which can be used to store water or sand for extinguishing a fire.
About 1 000 households of various informal settlements across the city will receive the kits during the months of June and July, and the areas which have been identified to benefit this year include Alexandra, Kya Sand, Denver and Orange Farm.
“Since the introduction of the kit, we have seen a reduction of about 42 percent in fire incidents and fatalities throughout the city’s informal settlements,” said EMS spokesperson Robert Mulaudzi during the launch of the Winter Fire Safety campaign at Msawawa informal settlement in in Kya Sand.
The City’s Executive Mayor Mpho Parks Tau, MMC for Public Safety, Sello Lemao, and other dignitaries of the City and its EMS division launched the campaign.
Fires in these settlements are mostly caused by lighting and heating apparatus that do not meet safety standards such as unattended candles, the use of open fires for cooking in a confined space with highly flammable materials and illegal electricity connections.
About 600 fires in the city last winter resulted in the death of 32 people.
