Less disasters, emergencies in City this Festive Season

By Rhodé Marshall
18 January 2008

Cape Town has shown a substantial decrease in the number of emergency and disaster related incidents over the past festive season, the City of Cape Town says.

Fire incidents were almost halved from 806 in 2006 to 467 in 2007. According to Cape Town’s Mayoral Committee member for Safety and Security Councillor Dumisani Ximbi – when all the fire incidents of the last festive season is compared to that of 2005 the number dropped by 60 percent.

“The fire season is far from over but the City’s proactive initiatives thus far have proved successful. The tough stance and heavy fines imposed by the Fire Amendment By-Law seemed to help curb the incidences of vehicle occupants tossing cigarette butts and burning matches,” says Ximbi.

He says that the City of Cape Town would like to thank the public for their co-operation and caution during the holiday season.

In December/January only three veld fires occurred at Soetwater, Macassar and Redhill – in these instances the fires were extinguished. The City says that there was a notable decline in the number of fires at informal settlements.