The National Disaster Management Centre to host 9th Annual National Fire Safety and Prevention Seminar to tackle the scourge of fires in the country
The National Disaster Management Centre (NDMC) in collaboration with the Gauteng Provincial Disaster Management Centre will host the 9th Fire Safety and Prevention Seminar. The Fire Safety and Prevention Seminar will be held in the City of Ekurhuleni at Birchwood hotel on the 22 & 23 February 2024.
The content thrust of the seminar will be underpinned by the fundamental fire safety principles for preventing fire events and managing their impact through common universal principles such as Prevention, Detection and Communication, Occupant Protection, Containment, and Extinguishment. The consistent application of these principles has become pervasively urgent owing to the growth in the global population that leads to greater urbanization, which results in more people living in higher-density, high-rise developments comprising numerous uses and occupancy types. Similarly, urban areas are encroaching on wildland spaces, creating increased areas of risk for interface fires.
The NDMC as the custodian of the Fire Services has placed the National Fire Safety and Prevention Seminar as a key annual national event that brings all role players to work collaboratively to reduce fire risks and losses in the country. This initiative is in keeping with the key policy proposals espoused in the White Paper on Fire Services that aim to place fire safety and prevention at the center of the provision of fire services in South Africa.
In giving strategic effect to this policy proposal, the Fire Services has implemented an operational philosophy that calls for a paradigm shift from response-oriented methodologies of providing fire services towards an approach that focuses primarily on striving to reduce fire risk through fire safety and prevention initiatives.
To this end, the Fire Safety and Prevention Seminar provides a platform for key role players in the fire sector to discuss progress, challenges, proposed solutions, and recommendations towards reducing fire risks and losses in the country. The seminar is a tactical event that is meant to provide a platform for interactive dialogue amongst fire safety and prevention practitioners and professionals in order to contribute to the national fire risk reduction agenda.
South Africa government, through the NDMC will on 23-24 February 2024, host the Annual Fire Safety and Prevention Seminar to address the challenges presented by fire disasters in the country. The occasion will be attended by an array of professionals in the sector, business, civil society, academics, and all relevant groups.
South Africa, including countries such as, Canada, Angola, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are prone to forest fires, although in South Africa at a lower scale than some other countries.
South Africa has two fire seasons according to rainfall patterns, the dry summer months, and the dry winter months in the rest of the country. Often wildland fires are started by lightning or, in mountainous regions, by falling rocks. Places like the Western Cape experience increased heat, windy conditions and dry vegetation which becomes a conducive environment for higher risk of fires. In the recent past provinces such as Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal have become prone to fire related disasters particularly in informal settlements, rural and urban settings, and now lately in abandoned, vacant and dilapidated buildings in the CBD, most of which are hijacked.
Among the topics for discussion is the Importance of Public-Private Partnerships in Improving Fire Services; Reflection on the Status of Fire Services in the Country; Fire Safety Capacity Building in Municipalities; the Institutional Arrangements for Disaster Management; Empowering Fire Services: Assessment and Data Management Tools, to cite but a few.
Members of the media are invited to the seminar as follows:
Date: 22 – 23 February 2024
Time: 09h00
Venue: Birchwood Hotel
For media enquiries kindly contact:
Mr Legadima Leso
Cell: 066 479 9904
