“No Embargo” – For Immediate Release

29 June 2009

HCM CONCERNED ABOUT THE SPREAD OF DESTRUCTIVE FIRES

Recent chilly and windy weather has seen an escalation of fires that have left a number of people homeless, without any clothes or any items except those in their bodies during the outbreak of fire, injured and in worst scenarios left people dead.

The statistics just between 01 and 29 June 2009 has shown that the badly affected people are those either living in the rural areas or in informal dwellings. Within the previous 29 days there has been more that 115 fires reported from informal dwellings; 9 rural house fires out of the total of 13 and 114 Bush Fires. There has been 1 fatal incident reported and 1 seriously injured person within this period.

The Leadership of the Municipality is very concerned about these statistics as we are going towards July and August which are chilly and windy in many a times. The chilly weather makes people to warm themselves with traditional heaters (izimbawula), fires and other means which turn up to be more risky. The windy weather on the other side escalates bush fires even if it was deliberately started and sometimes monitored but ends up uncontrolled and becomes destructive.

The Mayor of Hibiscus Coast wants to pass a message to our communities that they should take extra care of themselves during this winter through the following tips:

·         Always practice good house keeping

·         Keep lighters, matches, heaters, paraffin lamps and candles away from children

·         Turn off all electric appliances when not in use or when power has failed and never overload plug points or sockets and do not use appliances with open wires

·         Fire for cooking should be made in a safe place and should not be left to the children and ensure that it is put out properly after cooking

·         Discard smoking materials carefully

·         Learn how to use gas in cylinders properly and ask the supplier about this

The notable causes of the recent fires are run away bush fires, electrical faults, candles, gas in cylinders, fires left unattended, traditional heaters and cigarette material discarded anyhow. The Municipality, through its Fire Safety Section under Protection Services Department is trying by all means to minimize the undesired effects of the fires however there are challenges beyond their reach that limit them when in their operations. Some of those are:

·         Poor or no access roads in the rural and informal settlement which affects response time of the fire engines

·         Fires being reported late and people not using the correct number to report; people should use 039 682 5555 all the times

·         Lack of hydrants in rural areas which then forces the fire engines to travel longer distances to refill their tanks which then makes fires to resurface and spread

·         Failure by those reporting fire outbreak incidents to give proper directions; people should use landmarks.

Issued by:

Simon M Soboyisa

Senior Manager: Mayoralty and Communications

Hibiscus Coast Municipality

Tel: 039 688 2056

Fax: 086 529 7121

Cell: 072 057 5387

E-mail: simon@hcm.gov.za