A short guide on preparing your home for the fire season
With seasons changing, this means that sooner or later, we get into the thick of the fire season in South Africa. While most fires around this time of year happen in and around the Western Cape, the danger of fire outbreaks in the hot and dry summer periods is ever-present all around the country. In this article, we are exploring 5 common causes of house fires and the ways you can prevent them.
As such, being prepared will always pay off, even if a house fire disaster doesn’t strike. Accidental fires can start suddenly and spread quickly, destroying your home before you can process what happened. Even small fires that are put out quickly can cause thousands of Rands in damage to your belongings.
According to stats released by the Fire Safety Engineering Guideline for Informal Settlements show that in 2018, 15-30 fires occurred daily in South Africa, accounting for at least one death per day. Furthermore, we already know how rampant fires are in South Africa’s fire seasons – this is of course made worse by the huge levels of poverty in the country, as well as the large number of informal settlements that are at constant risk of being destroyed in an uncontrollable blaze.
Looking at recent times, we’ve seen entire communities destroyed in disastrous fires like the 2015 Cape Wildfires where over R11 million in damages was incurred in 3 months, as well as the 2020 Alexandra Fires where 200 shacks were obliterated in a huge accidental fire.
While you should always have a home insurance policy to help with damage limitation, you should never hesitate to put some time and focus on proper fire safety and prevention. Let’s get to the gist of the blog, shall we?