EMS to handover Jozi Safety Kits

THE City of Johannesburg’s (CoJ) Emergency Management Services (EMS) has noted with much concern the number of lives and property loss due to domestic fires during winter.

That is why the CoJ EMS acting executive director, Mhlengi Makhubalo, together with the MMC of Public Safety, Clr Micheal Sun, will on June 4 in a concerted effort to prevent fire incidents, fatalities and injuries, particularly in the city and 189 informal settlements as the winter cold sets in, launch the Winter Fire Safety Campaigns and the Jozi Safety Kits handover.

These fires have led to unnecessary deaths and loss of property leaving communities in a vulnerable state. These unforeseen circumstances are preventable if people use proper cooking and lighting equipment and know how to identify the risks in their households and remove them.

These fires are mostly caused by the following:

1. Lighting and heating appliances that are not regulated by the National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications (NRCS) and in most cases they explode and start fires.

2. Candles that are not placed on proper candle safety jars to prevent them from falling.

3. Using open fire for cooking in a confined space with highly flammable materials, for example, imbaulas (braziers) which are also causes of death when people inhale its toxic smoke.

4. Illegal connections of electricity which also has bad consequences for young children in those areas with electrocution.

5. The most recent causes which are difficult for the city to deal with are the fires started by love triangles where couples fight and deliberately set the whole settlement on fire.

During winter last year, EMS responded to about 242 fire incidents within the CoJ’s informal settlements. It is unfortunate that eight people died during these fire incidents. In most of these fire incidents, young children are left alone at home to look after other young children and are also given the responsibility to cook for themselves in the processes, being vulnerable to these fire incidents. Even though there was a reduction in terms of the fatalities compared to the winter of 2016 where about 23 people lost their lives, we cannot celebrate until we have zero fire incidents throughout the city.

It is for this reason that during winter the CoJ EMS through our Public Information Education and Relations (Pier) section responsible for public education within EMS, intensifies our community outreach programmes advising all communities throughout the CoJ on how to use these heating and lighting appliances safely.

The CoJ EMS will again this year target all 189 informal settlements throughout the CoJ to conduct winter fire safety door to door campaigns in order to reduce fire incidents and fatalities caused by the unsafe use of heating and lighting appliances like paraffin stoves, heaters or imbaulas.

The Jozi Safety Kit handover

The Jozi Safety Kit is a proud initiative from the CoJ EMS which was introduced to our communities in 2009 to reduce the number of fire incidents and fatalities within our most vulnerable communities, the informal settlements throughout the CoJ.

This initiative was introduced to our communities to introduce other heat energy sources they can use without causing devastating fires, which in most cases leaves communities homeless.

About 1 000 households from various informal settlements across the CoJ will be receiving this Jozi Safety Kits during June and July.

The areas which have been identified to benefit among others this year include Region F Roseacres and Region G Eikenhof.

The Jozi Safety Kit consists of the following items:

• A Para-Safe Stove (which extinguishes itself in the event of excessive movement)

• A smoke detector (which serves as an early warning system)

• A burn kit (to treat minor burns)

• A latern light

• A 25-litre bucket (which can be used to store water that can be used as an extinguishing agent in case of a fire)

Robert Mulaudzi, spokesperson of the CoJ EMS said, “Since the introduction of the Jozi Safety Kit we have seen a reduction of about 50 per cent of fire incidents and fatalities throughout the CoJ informal settlements.”

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