Smoke detectors and fire blankets for vulnerable Touwsranten community

The George Fire and Rescue Service is installing 500 smoke detectors and handing out 700 fire blankets as part of a fire safety and awareness campaign in Touwsranten.

The project is expected to be finished in six months, with smoke detectors installed in every home.

This is a welcome initiative, especially since Touwsranten was ravaged by a month-long fire in November 2018.

In another fire in the same area in July 2018, a man believed to be in his mid-20s died and 34 people were displaced.

The George municipality said the battery-operated smoke detectors had an estimated 10-year lifespan and included a 9V battery, which should ideally be replaced every six months but could last for years and was designed to make a loud, high-pitched sound when a concentration of smoke reached the detector.

Firefighters are going door to door to install the fire detectors, hand out fire blankets and teach fire awareness in the community.

George chief fire officer Neels Barnard said the community’s location in a high-vegetation zone among farms and plantations outside Wilderness made it vulnerable to fires, which was revealed in a risk assessment in 2020. 

“The municipality recognised the risk some years ago and has created and maintained firebreaks around the settlement for some time, but decided to address fire risk at homes as well.”

Barnard said risk assessments in the Wilderness, Hoekwil and Touwsranten areas were performed by Western Cape disaster risk management.

“[Disaster risk management] confirmed the village’s vulnerable status and sponsored fire detectors for the estimated 500 structures, mostly RDP housing.”

Barnard said the initiative had already reaped rewards, with at least one house fire prevented just a week after a detector was installed at a house in Amarula Street.

Homeowner Liezel Barnard said the smoke detector went off in the kitchen while her teenage daughters were attending to a smaller child in the adjacent room.

“The smoke detector went off before the house could catch fire and a neighbour, who could hear the alarm from next door, came rushing over to help the girls.

“We had undergone the fire safety and smoke detector training the week before and I had not yet had a chance to show my girls what to do if the alarm went off.”

This project is another step in an ongoing initiative to expand fire support and safety to the extended Wilderness community, which includes the new satellite fire station being built next to the police station, the municipality said.

It is expected to be completed by July. 

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