Fire safety initiative for Durban informal settlements
"The aim is to train volunteers to act proactively and minimize the risks."
IN the hopes of empowering residents to prevent and contain devastating shack fire, that regularly affect informal settlements, about 20 residents from the Kennedy Road and Malacca Road informal settlement were given safety training.
According to the Institute of Race Relations, an average of 23 shacks are destroyed by fire every day in South Africa.
Kennedy Road resident, Michael Ntimbane, lost everything when a fire ripped through the settlement two years ago.
Ntimbane was one of many who could salvage nothing from the piles of charred wood and twisted metal that remained.
Less than a year later, a similar fire wreaked havoc in the settlement and according to him, if it wasn’t for the training he received, he wouldn’t have been able to protect his dwelling during the recent fires at the settlement.
“In addition to sparks from illegal connections and low hanging wires, residents also increased the risk of fire by leaving small stoves unattended whilst cooking or allowing candles to burn down when they went outside to chat to neighbors or fell asleep whilst watching television,” said Ntimbane.
ALSO READ: Relief efforts for Kennedy Road fire victims
Pantelis Patric Eleftheriou, Managing Director of FTS Safety Group, which provided the training said that the vision was to train volunteers from the community to act proactively and minimize the risks.
Should there be a fire, he also hoped to equip people to deal with the fire and reduce the number of potential injuries or even deaths until professional fire fighters arrived at the scene.
“We realized that people needed to know how to protect themselves.”
“First Prize to prevent fires, then they needed to know the basics of fighting a fire and how to contain a fire with minimal risk to themselves rather than letting it get out of control. The overall message of safety is that people are valuable and need to value themselves. There may be disagreements and even political differences in communities but if we talk about shack fires, we quickly find that everyone is on the same page,” he said.
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