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15th International Safe Communites Conference. Click here (PDF) www.cmc.uct.ac.za

First Aid for Burns: What to do. Graphically presented.
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Child Safety Month 2005 -
June 2005. more

Watch That Child! -
Child safety is no accident. more

CAPFSA 25th Anniversary - Feedback on 25th Anniversary banquet. more

CAPFSA 25th Anniversary - International Conference held in October 2003. more

Safety Tips (English) - Points to note around the house - graphically presented. click here

Safety Chart (English) - Savlons Family Safety Chart - graphically presented. click here

Paraffin stove starts 37-shack blaze

It is believed that a man fell asleep while cooking on a paraffin stove in his shack, when it capsized and spread through Joe Slovo informal settlement in Langa. The fire raged through the properties destroying all the possessions of the occupants. The fire broke out shortly before midnight on Sunday 4 January.

On 22 December 2003, a fire swept through the Joe Slovo informal settlement, Coronationville, taking two lives and destroying dozens of shacks. The presence of a water tank provided by the Children of Fire organisation, assisted fire fighters to quell the blaze and save more homes. An estimated 8 000 people live in the area.

In the early hours of Sunday, 18 January 2004, a fire swept through the Nomzamo community in the Strand in Cape Town. Two persons died and an estimated 1600 were left homeless as some 380 shacks went up in smoke. The fire was fanned by a strong south-easter and took over 4 hours to contain. It was started by a couple who were arguing over an affair. Overhead power lines hampered fire-fighting.

A heater too close to a curtain started a fire in a home in Newcastle, Natal. The incident happened on 11 January 2004 at 18:39. Five rooms were burnt. Damage was estimated at R 250 000.

The Port Elizabeth fire department attended a fire on 7 January 2004 and put it out. Two days later the fire rekindled and the home burned down. An out of court settlement will be negotiated after the Metropole admitted that the brigade could have been at fault in not adequately dealing with the first fire.

On 3 April 2004 a Durban family woke to find their house well alight. Their 12-year-old son had come back from a church function after midnight to find his bedroom light bulb had blown. He lit a candle to prepare for bed and then fell asleep. Somehow, the candle started the fire and the family woke up from heat. The four-year-old daughter was treated for smoke inhalation. The uninsured home was destroyed.

The Magoebaskloof Hotel in Limpopo burned down at 03:00 on 11 January 2004. The guests were evacuated and had to be relocated to alternative accommodation. The Dickie Dagge conference room, an accommodation wing and the Red Post Box Pub were all that remained of the landmark hotel, built in 1937. Faulty wiring in the dining room ceiling is suspected as being the cause.

A Pietermaritzburg attorney died when she could not escape a fire because of the security bars over the windows. Her domestic helper woke up to her screams and discovered the house well alight. The attorney screamed for her to use the garden hose. This was done to no avail. Firemen had to cut the bars to gain access, but this was too late.

45-year sentence for arsonist

A man was given two twenty-year sentences for murder and a five-year sentence for arson for inciting four persons to burn down a rival’s hut while she was sleeping. Her crime was selling cigarettes and alcohol in competition with the man in his sixties who owned a nearby shebeen. The man persuaded the accomplices to burn the shack for a reward of a bottle of vodka and a case of beers. The 24-year-old woman and her baby died in the fire.

A man and two children died in this Ladysmith fire in September 2004. A power failure occurred at 21:00 and at 23:00 a fire was discovered on the top floor of the three-storey building. A hostel resident delivered a running call to the fire station a kilometre distant. The protection services then had to ‘phone the standby crew to respond from home’. Old dodgy fire engines are all that are available. The fire is believed to have been started by a candle.

A townhouse burned when a fire was started when a candle placed on the side of a bath, probably set fire to a toilet, which, in turn, fell into the bath and set it on fire. Modern baths are made of combustible plastic materials, not suited to this style of subtle illumination. The Bryanston, Johannesburg, home fire occurred in July 2004.

A double storey thatched home was sold for over a million rand and required an electrical compliance certificate according to law, prior to the change of ownership. The accredited inspector’s report referred to regulation non-compliance and an unsafe installation. A fire broke out and totalled the home leaving the family who rented it, with no accommodation. The fire started at 23:00.

A man was killed in his home when arsonists from a rival taxi association set the place on fire. The home was fully burglar barred with 20mm steel bars and had three locks on the doors, making access difficult and egress impossible. The fire was reported 04:36 on 24 July 2004 and happened in Mongaung District Council ( Bloemfontein).

The grandmother of Springbok rugby star of the year, Schalk Burger, died in a fire in August 2004. She had been staying in the Eden Country Inn in Klein-Brakrivier with a family friend. The fire was spotted at 03:00 and both occupants of the room were fatally burned. The Springbok heard about the tragedy while on a training camp in Johannesburg.

Fourteen boys were sharing a grass hut during a traditional initiation ceremony in January 2004, when lightning struck the hut and set it alight. One of the boys was not rendered unconscious and was able to drag out four of the occupants before fire engulfed the whole hut. His brother also died in the fire in the Eastern Cape.

Puppies killed in inferno

Six Yorkshire terrier puppies died in a fire started by an electric blanket in the room of the breeder. Each dog had its own electric blanket – not surprising since they sold for up to R 3000 each. Although the pups died, adult dogs were saved by mouth to snout resuscitation

SOURCE: FIRE PROTECTION SUMMER 2004