By Khanyisa Tabata
09 February 2010
The City of Cape Town’s Fire and Rescue Services says it has recorded fewer incidents involving fires in informal settlements around the city.
The city’s disaster management Wilfred Solomons-Johannes says the causes of the fires vary from the illegal use of electricity to heating and cooking devices.
“A total of 3 780 individual informal dwelling units out of approximately 84 000 were affected by fires in 2009. These range from units in informal settlements, to informal units in the backyards of formal dwellings. The number of informal structures in the yards of formal dwelling units appears to be increasing at a rapid rate.
“If one takes into context the number of dwelling units affected in 2005, which was recorded at 8 864, then the City has gone a long way to reducing this by more than half over the last four years, and we will strive to reduce it even further over the years to come,” said Wilfred Solomons-Johannes.
The City has repeatedly appealed to members of the public to be careful of starting fires, to be vigilant and to report fires if they spot them added Solomons-Johannes.
09 February 2010
The City of Cape Town’s Fire and Rescue Services says it has recorded fewer incidents involving fires in informal settlements around the city.
The city’s disaster management Wilfred Solomons-Johannes says the causes of the fires vary from the illegal use of electricity to heating and cooking devices.
“A total of 3 780 individual informal dwelling units out of approximately 84 000 were affected by fires in 2009. These range from units in informal settlements, to informal units in the backyards of formal dwellings. The number of informal structures in the yards of formal dwelling units appears to be increasing at a rapid rate.
“If one takes into context the number of dwelling units affected in 2005, which was recorded at 8 864, then the City has gone a long way to reducing this by more than half over the last four years, and we will strive to reduce it even further over the years to come,” said Wilfred Solomons-Johannes.
The City has repeatedly appealed to members of the public to be careful of starting fires, to be vigilant and to report fires if they spot them added Solomons-Johannes.
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