ADULT men have been the main victims of shack fires in Cape Town, making up for more than half of all informal settlement fire deaths recorded last year.
Between January and December, 115 people died in fires, according to Mayor Patricia de Lille.
A breakdown of the recorded deaths for informal settlement fires last year is as follows:
- Males (age 18-60) – 59
- Males (age 61-100) – 4
- Females (age 18-60) – 23
- Females (age 61-100) – 1
- Male children (0-17) – 17
- Female children (0-17) – 11
There were 1 157 responses to fire reports in informal settlements (including false alarms) last year.
De Lille provided the statistics in a written reply to Al Jama-Ah councillor Ganief Hendricks who asked if the city had a plan to “totally stop” fires in informal settlements which resulted in deaths.
She said the city, through its Fire and Rescue Service and Disaster Risk Management Centre, had conducted an intensive public awareness and preparedness campaign on the issue of fires in informal settlements from December 20, 2011 until January 16 this year.
As another preventive measure, the Fire and Rescue Service is in the process of exploring the options of monthly fire drills and a fire team consisting of local residents through establishing a “fire reservist programme”.
Hendricks also asked if De Lille was prepared to place a fire engine in each informal settlement where fires had occurred over the past year, for the next 15 years.
“Can there be monthly fire drills and a fire team consisting of local residents in informal settlements prone to fires?” Hendricks asked.
De Lille said there were 30 fire stations covering the city.
“A dwelling unit can be completely engulfed in flames within one minute and 40 seconds,” she said.
“The placement of fire engines on every corner of an informal settlement will not prevent a dwelling unit from burning down.
“Behavioural changes need to happen and hence concentration on awareness and preventive measures exists,” De Lille said.
She said the city had, over the past four years, invested close to R200 million in the city’s Fire and Rescue Services which had enabled it to meet the “international baseline” for responding to emergencies.
She said this would substantially reduce deaths from fire incidents in informal settlements.
“Each of the informal settlement areas had fire stations within legislated and accepted response distances,” De Lille said.
In one of the worst fire incidents last year, a woman who lost all four of her children in a fire at their Khayelitsha home died in hospital two weeks later.
Bulelwa Matewu’s children – boys Tebogo, 15, and Masithembe, 11, and girls Nthabiseng, seven, and Sesono, two – died after neighbours tried to save them from their burning shack in Makhaza on August 8 last year.
Matewu herself was badly burnt and was taken to Tygerberg Hospital.
After battling to survive for two weeks, she eventually succumbed to her injuries.
Earlier this month, 65 shacks were destroyed, leaving 170 people displaced when a fire broke out at in RR Section in Khayelitsha.
No comments:
Post a Comment