Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning
Question by:
Hon Rodney Lentit
Answered by:
Hon Anton Bredell
Question Number:
5
Question Body:
- How many people in the province are employed through the Working for Fire initiative;
- whether this initiative contributed to the integrated fire management and wild fire fighting, combined with the need to create jobs and develop skills; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details;
- whether the skills developed are applicable to other comparable jobs; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details?
Answer Body:
- The NRM programme reports more than 700 employment opportunities through Working on Fire in the Western Cape. Of these, SANParks and the City of Cape Town contracts 47 and 50 people respectively through the Working for Fire programme. CapeNature is not an implementing agent for Working on Fire, however hosts a total of nine Working on Fire Bases in the Western Cape, with a total of approximately 198 fire fighters. As a host agency CapeNature is required to provide office space to these teams and high level supervision. CapeNature can utilise the Working on Fire Teams when required for fire suppression at wildfires and during planned burning operations. Therefore in the Western Cape a total of about 295 people are employed by the conservation implementation agencies through the Working for Fire programme.
- The Working on Fire Programme definitely contributes to integrated fire management and wildfire fighting in the Western Cape. The additional resource this Programme provides for firefighting in the Western Cape is significant. The total area burnt in wildfires 2012-2015 is 185 956 hectares, as shown in Table 2. This excludes the recent fires which have occurred since 23 February 2015.
|
|
2012/13 |
2013/14 |
2014/15 |
|
No of Fires |
99 |
45 |
94 (until 23 Feb 2015) |
|
Hectares Burnt |
87 542 |
8 918 |
89 496 |
The Working of Fire teams carry out wildfire suppression, prescribed burning, fire-break preparation and maintenance, road maintenance and awareness-raising in communities.
All of the teams are located and sourced in or near rural communities throughout the Province. Constant training is attended where beneficiaries improve skills development and makes the individual employable in various sectors.
- Yes, the skills developed are aligned to other comparable jobs, and some of this training is highlighted below:
- Helicopter Support
- Water Bomber Loaders
- Structural Fire-Fighting
- Supervision
- Leadership
- Health and Safety
- Carpentry
- Bricklaying
- Management and Support Services (predominately selected from the fire-fighter ranks) are trained in:
- Communications
- Media
- Health & Safety
- Incident investigation
- Management
- Leadership
Date:
Friday, February 20, 2015
