Midrand and its wide-reaching peri-urban areas such as Kyalami will be part of the programme.
The programme’s Gauteng manager, Avhasei Maswime, advised landowners to create fire belts to help prevent and fight veld and forest fires during the winter fire season.
According to Maswime, the condition of the dry grass between August and October is known as the winter fire season. The National Veld and Forest Fire Act of 1998 also labelled it as a ‘no smoke’ period.
To implement the programme, landowners are encouraged to do fire breaks from the beginning of June until the end of July.
“Our teams are using fire danger indices to determine the weather condition so that when they do fire breaks, it is safe. This minimises chances of fires getting out of control,” said Maswime.
He said that firefighters also do fire prevention initiatives such as fuel load reduction, prescribed burning, creation of fire breaks and mandatory fire safety campaigns before the start of the fire season.
Fire specialists expect that there will be an increased risk of veld and forest fires, given the current long-term dry and windy weather forecast.
“Close to 321 people are working… there are forest firefighters stationed at 13 bases and one structural fire-fighting team is available for the province. The 2013 fire season was difficult in Gauteng with over 326 fires and an estimated 20 137 hectares were burnt,” he explained.
These firefighters are professionally trained to suppress veld and forest fires. They are deployed to various bases in Gauteng to reduce the personal and economic harm caused by unwanted wildfires. “Working on Fire ground teams can be dispatched within six minutes of receiving a call for help,” stated Maswime.
