Community educated about fire

Kaya FM in collaboration with Gift of the Givers and the municipality held an awareness campaign at the Makause informal settlement, recently.

The event was primarily aimed at educating the community about fire safety and how to use fire extinguishers.

Ward 21 councillor, Tania Campbell, was among those present appreciating the initiative.

“Ward 21 includes Makause informal settlement and I welcome Kaya FM into our ward,” she said.

“They have started a great initiative bringing in fire extinguishers to people within the informal settlements.

“We have identified groups of people who will be trained by Ekurhuleni Emergency Services to stop fires more quickly which will prevent the fire from spreading to other shacks.

“It is very important that within the winter months we do programmes like this.

“Thank you to Kaya FM for choosing my ward because these are the communities that really need our support.”

The district manager media liaison for Ekurhuleni Disaster and Emergency Management Services (DEMS), William Ntladi, also agreed with Campbell and said, “We welcome the assistance offered by parties like Kaya FM as it makes our job a lot easier as far as safety is concerned.

“With the fire extinguisher present within the communities, fires can be extinguished or contained and kept to a minimum before the arrival of DEMS.

“In this way, lives of more community members can be saved.”

“I am very happy with this initiative, at least we will be able to extinguish fires properly and effectively,” said Makause informal settlement resident, Joyce Mthombeni.

The company assigned to install the fire extinguishers is Akunamlilo Fire Fighters.

“We go to different informal settlements and train people how to use fire extinguishers,” said the founder of Akunamlilo Fire Fighters, Milton Mzobe.

“We get funding and buy fire extinguishers that we also install.

“We are here with Kaya FM and Gift of the Givers to give and install 300 fire extinguishers in the Makause informal settlement.

“Also partnering with the metro we want to make a difference and eliminate fire outbreaks.

“It is also encouraging to see community members willing to learn about the use of fire extinguishers.”

Fire extinguishers and the knowledge of fire extinguishing were not the only things received by the community of Makause.

“As part of our winter warmer campaign we will be giving each community member a blanket, milk and toiletry items, among other things,” said the project manager at Gift of the Givers, Emily Thomas.

Community members were also treated to a plate of food by Gift of the Givers.