GOOD NEWS: 350 shacks are now safe from fires
Last year, a resident of Boksburg entered and won a competition which resulted in 350 shacks around Boksburg recently being fitted with fire detectors.
Emmanuel January beat more than 300 people to win the competition ran by Kaya FM and Carling Blue Label.
In it, the organisers wanted people to come up with ideas of how they can use R48 000 towards fighting some of the social ills faced by communities.
January wrote in and suggested that he could use it to equip shacks with fire detectors in order to minimise fire shacks.
His idea was chosen and though January did not receive any financial or material reward, he was delighted to have done something positive for the community.
“It was a selfless service and idea with absolutely nothing in it for me,” said January.
The rules of the competition stated that the prize is not cash but a 48-hour experience worth R48 000.
On January 30, January led the Lumkani team to Cinderella Hostel, Sky Street, Kalamazoo and Station informal settlements to install the devices.
Lumkani is the company that developed an early-warning system to reduce the damage and destruction caused by the spread of shack/slum fires in urban informal settlements.
Lumkani detectors use rate-of-rise of temperature technology to accurately measure the incidence of dangerous fires and limit the occurrence of false alarms.
The company said on its website that density is a challenge all urban informal settlements share and is a major risk factor that enables the rapid spread of fires.
In order to provide sufficient early-warning, a communal alert is required.
“Our detectors are networked within a 60-metre radius so that in the event of a fire all devices in this range will ring together, enabling a community-wide response to the danger. This buys time for communities to become proactive in rapidly spreading fire risk situations,” said Lumkani.
