Load-shedding poses a heightened fire risk for homeowners and their families.
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Homeowners must implement basic fire-risk mitigation measures to protect both their families and properties.
The first thing homeowners need to do in the event of load-shedding is to ensure all power sources are switched off.
Another risk factor is using candles as a light source, which need to be extinguished immediately once the power supply is restored.
Homeowners need to ensure that candles are positioned correctly so that, if they fall over, they do not pose a fire risk.
Any candles must be placed in proper containers as well to prevent this from happening.
Homeowners are advised to invest in a small fire extinguisher for the home and to ensure all residents not only know where it is placed so it can be accessed readily in darkness, but that everyone in the home knows how to operate it effectively in the event of any fire.
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Fire-prevention legislation tends to focus on commercial and retail spaces rather than standalone residential dwellings, where there is no regulatory requirement to have fire extinguishers, hose reels or even automatic sprinklers installed, which is also prohibitive from a cost point of view.
Homeowners are urged to have some fire prevention strategy in place, even if it just means having a fire extinguisher located at a central point such as a garage.
Homeowners are increasingly opting for back-up gensets to supplement grid power in the event of load-shedding, but these pose their own safety and risk issues.
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It is essential to ensure that such gensets are serviced and maintained regularly so that they can be switched on immediately in the event of load-shedding.
If the power goes out and you switch your genset on, only to find that it is out of fuel, for example, the last thing you want to do is to attempt to refill that genset while it is running, or while the engine or exhaust is hot, as this poses a serious risk of causing a fire.
