Communities must explore safety options for fires: Specialist

Poor households, especially those in informal settlements, will remain vulnerable to deadly fires during this winter season if nothing is done to help them protect themselves.

That’s according to safety specialist Donnathin De Beer.

De Beer says communities always find it difficult to access firefighting equipment in the event of a fire.

Six family members perished in a deadly fire that engulfed their shack in Ekurhuleni over the past weekend.

De Beer says communities need to identify different safety options.

“Identifying the different options for community safety is basically to have certain sectors in your community for the informal settlement with a special firefighting technique and trained. That will involve having your community as part of preventing any fires. This goes hand in hand with educating these settlements to help them look at the different aspects of risks that’s involved in this. Like open fires. It’s your heaters and illegal fire connections.”