SPEECH BY EXECUTIVE MAYOR, ALDERMAN PATRICIA DE LILLE, AT THE KHAYELITSHA FIRE STATION ON 18 JANUARY 2012
Mayor pays tribute to firefighters for outstanding service
I am here to thank all the firemen and women throughout the city for dedicating their lives to keeping our communities safe.
Your prompt responses when fires spread or natural disasters strike are often the difference between life and death in many communities.
Many of you barely spend enough spend time with your own families out of service to the people of Cape Town.
When many of us are enjoying the Festive Season with our families, you are the ones to whom we all turn to reduce the devastating effects of fires.
The Khayelitsha Fire Station is one of the busiest in the metropole. The depot responds to an average of over 80 fire incidents per month. This figure rises exponentially during heat waves, such as the one we are currently experiencing, which are characterised by a high volume of fire incidents. Since January 2012 the station has responded to 108 fire incidents.
Many of these are resolved without fatalities because our Fire and Rescue Services are well-equipped and trained to deal with fires.
We value the outstanding work of all firefighters.
This is why we are continuously exploring numerous interventions to help you to continue with your sterling service to the people of Cape Town.
The City has over the last four years invested close to R200 million in the City's Fire and Rescue Services which has enabled us to meet the international baseline for responding to emergencies and substantially reduce fatalities from fire incidents in informal settlements.
In December, the City distributed a total of 1 000 fire extinguishers, funded by the Mayoral Special Projects Fund, to households in Langa Zone 30, 31 and 32. More fire extinguishers will be distributed to other communities that are prone to fires once we have measured the effectiveness of the pilot project.
The portable fire extinguishers are part of the City's broader plans to improve our capacity to prevent the devastating effects of fires and natural disasters.
We also have a series of awareness programmes to educate residents to eliminate causes of avoidable fires.
We have increased our investment in our Fire and Rescue Services department. We now have a total of 30 fire stations which are open 24 hours a day.
We also appoint seasonal firefighters to enhance our capacity to deal with fires during this period when fire incidents are at their highest.
The City is doing its utmost best to safeguard all communities. However, our efforts alone will never be enough to prevent fires.
I urge all residents to take responsibility for fire safety where they live and work. This will reduce the unnecessary burden on our Fire and Rescue Services and free them to focus on unavoidable incidents.
We must all play our part to keep our communities safe.
Issued by Communication Department, City of Cape Town, January 18 2012
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