By Emily Setona
QWAQWA – A group of community members embark on sharing their health and safety skills with the community of Maluti – a – Phofung (MAP) because it is fire season and there have been numerous reports of houses burning down because of loadshedding.
With winter being the fire season Apex Safety Solutions (ASS) has launched a basic life support and fire safety awareness campaign that they have already introduced to schools in MAP. According to Joyina Tshabangu the aim of this campaign is to raise and promote an awareness about basic life support and fire safety. “In 2022 we decided to register Apex Safety Solutions NPC after realising that a lot of people in our community do not have basic life skills training and fire safety skills,” Tshabangu said.
Joyina Tshabangu, Kholiwe Mofokeng, Mmadika Ndaba, Pitso Modise, Matsie Mofokeng, Moiloa Matsoabodi and Rorisang Tsotesi are the founding members of ASS and have started going to schools such as Kgula Thuto to share their skills with the learners of this secondary school.
“As a group we go to schools and share health and safety skills with learners. One critical thing that we teach them is that a fire is put out in three stages. Before it happens, during the fire and after the fire. We have observed that a lot of people don’t’ know what to do when there is a fire. They remain in a state of panic and shock and are unable to help the situation before help arrives,” Kholiwe Mofokeng said.
According to this team during an emergency or fire, the ambulance does not arrive immediately, so it is important for people to be able to do risk assessment of the situation. In the case of a fire, it is important to take note of the things that are most likely to contribute towards causing a fire. Appliances should be off; no candles should be left unattended and the likes. During a fire water is not the only thing that can help extinguish a fire and when there is a fire extinguisher people need to be trained how to use this tool.
