Fire-fighters on high alert all over SA
Fire-fighters have been very busy recently and say the fire season is not yet over.
The fire season is far from over, warned Working on Fire (WOF).
WOF is an expanded public works programme funded by the Department of Environmental Affairs. According to them, August until early November is a critical stage of the fire season.
A statement released on Wednesday stated that the Department of Environmental Affairs’ WOF employees were kept busy during South Africa’s winter fire season, with more than 800 firefighters fighting 44 fires throughout eight provinces.
Parapara Makgahlela, WOF Provincial Communication officer said, “Working on Fire is a government programme that has 5 000 fully trained fire-fighters at 200 bases throughout South Africa, providing an essential fire suppression service to landowners and municipalities across the country.”
Makgahlela said that during the past 24 hours, 35 WOF teams fought the following 44 fires in various provinces:
• Eastern Cape – 2
• Free State – 12
• Gauteng – 9
• KwaZulu-Natal – 8
• Limpopo – 1
• Mpumalanga – 11
• North West – 1
In addition, WOF provided three spotter planes, one fixed-wing water bomber and three helicopters to provide aerial fire-fighting support.
Makgahlela continued, “Most of South Africa experiences a winter fire season, except for the Western Cape (where the fire season occurs in the summer). The current drought experienced throughout the country, coupled with high temperatures, has resulted in unusual fire activity in various parts of our country, and our WOF fire-fighters will remain on high alert.
“WOF has also established a national deployment team which can be dispatched to anywhere in the country to assist farmers and landowners with fire suppression efforts.
“All our firefighters will remain on high alert and will be ready to provide fire fighting services to landowners and municipalities. We urge communities and landowners to remain vigilant and not to start any unnecessary fires. We also urge people to keep an eye on the daily Fire Danger Index (FDI) warnings issued by the SA Weather Service.”
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