Working on Fire with Nkandla Municipality under Fire and Disaster Management with uThungulu Disaster District recently had a refresher fire safety workshop in the community of Nkandla. The refresher workshop looked at a method to assess the level of risk, how to prepare plans that can be used now and strategies that require long term planning for the safety of the area.

The Community Fire Awareness officer, Makhosi Dladla, said:  “We started the year on a high gear when we assembled with the wakwaDlomo community in Ward 3 in Nkandla and a group called Prevention Safety Workers.”

The fire fighting stakeholders attended the workshop to learn how they can prepare for possible disasters in the summer and winter season.

“We discussed how to work together as a group, sustaining of their committee and how to work with surrounding communities and schools to reduce fuel load near the homes and schools.” said Makhosi.

King Dlomo thanked the project brought by uThungulu Disaster managements and Working on Fire which has shown visible results as the number of fires has decreased. “Now there is an understanding of fire compared to previous years. The strategy of doing follow ups also played a vital role because if you get to the place to give them knowledge people will forget,” King Dlomo said.

Sibonisile Kunene Disaster Manager, emphasized the importance of knowing your hazards and planning on how the community can deal with those hazards. “Communities should know the climate change impacts as it affect all of us,” said Kunene.

Kunene concluded by encouraging the community to listen to radios, watch TV news and read newspapers so they can know about  warning alerts for extremely high weather temperatures happening in the area.