Gearing up for the fire season
Working on Fire urges communities to report fires as soon as they see them
The Zululand fire season is set to only begin next month, but Working on Fire (WoF) teams in the far north have been busy from as early as January suppressing fires and educating communities.
The Manzengwenya and Mbazwana teams have fought eight fires already this year, and the risk of many more throughout the region’s dry winter is high.
To ensure all teams are fully equipped ahead of the official fire season, WoF throughout the province has been conducting numerous activities to assist in the reduction of fires.
As part of the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP), funded by the Department of Environmental Affairs, WoF recruits unemployed youth and trains them as professional wildland firefighters.
Once trained, they are positioned at one of 200 firefighting bases across fire prone regions in South Africa.
‘We have been collaborating with stakeholders in fire prone areas by reducing fuel loads in communities, conducting school fire awareness programmes, door-to-door campaigns and FireSafe workshops to ensure their safety this fire season,’ said KZN Acting General Manager, Dave Williams.
WoF urges communities to be vigilant despite the fire season not having officially begun, and to report fires to the appropriate authorities as soon as they see them.
This helps reduce the damage to properties.
‘Negligence is one of the major factors that causes the wild spread of unwanted fires in communities,’ said Williams.
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