Strap Cape Winelands District Municipality Fire Service An immaculate array of apparatus that serves its community well Situated in South Africa s winelands area of fairest Cape, the Cape Winelands Fire Service has been in existence for many decades during which time it resided under various divisional and district councils. The current service was formed by the almalgamation of the fire services of the former Breede River and Winelands District Councils. The service is headed up by chief fire officer Danie Wilds. The Cape Winelands District Municipality (CWDM) Fire Service was established and functioned to provide the full range of fire fighting services in peri-urban and rural areas in terms of the Fire Brigade Services Act, 1987 (Act 99 of 1987). Over time, it has developed an extensive infrastructure, including a wide communications network, comprehensive inventory and fulltime personnel and reservists. The service offers the rural community of the Cape Winelands district an exclusive and professional service covering an area of 217 474km2 with its headquarters in Stellenbosch and satellite fire stations in Paarl, Ceres, Worcester and Robertson. Its vision is to render a quality emergency service to the community and its mission: to develop and maintain a people and community-centred fire service that: 1. Continuosly strives to achieve service excellence 2. Is accessible and responsive to client and community needs and demands 3. Equitable service delivery in all areas and to all communities 4. Maintains its material and human resources in an optimal state of readiness 5. Consistently achieves acceptable standards of service delivery through the efficient and effective use of material and human resources Its strategic objective is to maintain existing service levels and acquire the necessary additional infrastructure, material and human resources to provide all statutory functions and to improve service delivery standards over time. Cape Winelands Fire Services CFO Danie Wilds and some of the officers Statutory functions The statuary functions of the CWDM Fire Service include delivering fire fighting services in terms of Section 84(1)(j) of the Municipal Structures FIRE AND RESCUE INTERNATIONAL 39
personnel in terms of Section 84(1)(j) of the Local Government: Municipal Structure Act, 1998 (Act 117 No 1998) and has established the Cape Winelands Fire and Rescue Training Academy to fulfil this mandate. Some of Cape Winelands Fire Services station commanders Act, (Act 117 of 1998). These functions are: Planning, coordination and regulation of district fire fighting services; specialised fire fighting services such as mountain, veld and chemical fire fighting services and the training of fire fighting officers. Staff The total personnel compliment of the Cape Winelands is 75 members, 10 reservist fire fighters and 12 Working on Fire structural fire fighters. During the wildfire season, 20 additional reservist fire fighters will be appointed as well as 96 contract ground crew fire fighters. The most important asset the CWDM has is its staff and it is through our staff, that we are able to render a professional service of an excellent standard to the community. Cape Winelands Fire Service strives for excellence. The passion we have for the fire service fuels our goal to venture into an arena of service excellence. At the Cape Winelands we believe passion fuels excellence, CFO Wilds added avidly. The difference between a champion and a contender is passion. If you take a candid look at global winners in the energy field, from sport to business, the champions are always those who have infused a passion for excellence into their chosen path. At Cape Winelands, our goal is to learn from the successes of great leaders and become champions in the national fire services profession through our passion for excellence. We acknowledge that the fire services profession is overrun with challenges and has limited differentiators, which define excellent service standards. While we understand that sometimes we may not always get it right, we take the feedback from our fire fighting personnel to heart knowing that they too are passionate about quality emergency services. We want to cultivate a performance driven culture in our department and to reignite the passion within our staff. Rebuilding our fire service into a service whose excellence is fuelled by passion, is an extensive process. Working hard towards ensuring that each of our invaluable staff members utilise their knowledge and experience optimally, is crucial in achieving our goal. Cape Winelands Fire Services passion for excellence will see us become champions in the fire services profession. Serving our community with loyalty and integrity we will work together towards actualising our goal. Training Chief Wilds said that it was essential that they ensure that all CDWM members are trained and skilled through continuous training and are uniquely motivated to provide a quality and efficient service. The Cape Winelands District Municipality is legislated to provide training for fire The training academy has accreditation with the South African Emergency Services Institute (SAESI) and the International Fire Service Accreditation Congress (IFSAC). The head office is situated in Stellenbosch, which is traditionally and culturally a town synonymous with education and training. Over time, considerable investments were made in the training academy, thus resulting in it being one of the leading training centres in Western Cape Province. The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 1001 program, which consists of Fire fighter I, Fire fighter II, Hazmat Awareness and Hazmat Operations, is being conducted at the academy annually, attended by fire fighters from various municipal fire departments, South African Navy, Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) and Transnet from March to December. Challenges Challenges faced by the service seem mainly due to the restructuring. Chief Danie Wilds said that the division of functions resulted in a number of serious problems and concerns: Duplication of expensive specialised equipment and infrastructure Duplication and centralisation of fire stations in the bigger towns, which contradicts the purpose of risk mapping for fire stations in accordance with the national standard Duplication of vehicles and too many vehicles concentrated in one area while the response time to other high risk areas are inadequate Shortage of staff at the CWDM during the summer fire season where the wildland fire fighting is the sole responsibility of the Cape Winelands Fire Services and the fire service being much busier and operationally active than the other municipal services due to functional responsibility The community is still confused about which authority to call when in need and unnecessary delays 40 FIRE AND RESCUE INTERNATIONAL
are caused when an emergency call must be handed over to another service when reported to the wrong municipality. Short comings CFO Wilds added that one of the major short comings of the Cape Winelands Fire Service is the lack of proper fire station facilities, which has a serious effect on the morale of the personnel. Notwithstanding these short comings, the fire service will ensure operational preparedness and prides itself on efficient and effective service delivery to the entire community. Fire fighting vehicles The Cape Winelands Fire Service is fortunate to be equippped with excellent off-road fire fighting vehicles and equipment to deal with its legislated function. The fleet consists of: 12 x major fire fighting vehicles 2 x 10 000 litre tankers 3 x medium fire fighting vehicles 12 light fire fighting vehicles 2 x hazmat vehicles 1 x decontamination vehicle 2 x rescue vehicles 1 x incident command vehicle 26 x service vehicles Chief Wilds proudly showed off the fleet and said, Cape Winelands Fire Service is constantly in the business of building and customising vehicles to suit our operational needs and the topographical demand of our area. With this in mind, we are constantly evaluating and assessing to produce practical, yet efficient fire tenders within the road traffic legislation to develop the ultimate fire tender. national consumption There are numerous informal settlements and vulnerable communities throughout the district Major fires and chemical incidents are a regular occurrence in the district. The environment and communities are extremely vulnerable to these types of disasters that have the potential to set back economic and social development. Evaluating local risks and planning for necessary resources Wildfires have been identified as a major and critical risk to the Cape Winelands community. As risks cannot be entirely prevented, effective evaluation and planning is necessary to minimise loss of life and property. Control measures include pre-incident planning; adequate fire services deployment and staffing and effective emergency management techniques. The core mission of the Cape Winelands Fire Service is to protect people, their property and the environment from fires. The primary goal is to prevent fires and, when they do occur, eliminate loss of life and reduce property loss. Our preparedness planning for the 2014/15 wildfire season included a wildfire risk assessment, said CFO Wilds. Determining the current and the acceptable level of risk for the district enables the fire services to set objectives for minimising or reducing the risk. This is also necessary for future planning, and includes the identification of critical resources and actions that will allow for efficient and effective fire services at an acceptable level in the future. Chemical fires and incidents Chemical fires or incidents pose a serious risk to life and property and pollution would have major environmental consequences in agricultural and ecologically sensitive environments as are found in the Cape Winelands district. Wildfires Chief Wilds said that wildfires are classified as a vegetation fire of any size that occurs in fynbos, natural veld, plantations, crops or invasive vegetation outside a built-up area. Integrated fire management includes all the strategies, plans and measures that are required and implemented to control the origin and cause of wildfires, prevent untimely and unwanted wildfires, prevent disastrous fires, respond to and control wildfires in order to achieve prescribed management objectives, he added. The effective management of wildfires requires planning and coordination in terms of the incident command procedures accepted by all role players within the Cape Winelands District. Response to a wildfire must begin with local incident management, Risk profile A snapshot of the risk areas within the Cape Winelands Fire Service s district: Approximately 65 percent of the surface area comprises mountains About 20 percent of ground coverage is veld and fynbos Farming and plantations make up the majority of the remaining ground cover The region experiences a very high number of wildfires from November to April All major national and regional road and rail routes transit the CWDM and carry hazardous cargoes for local and Some of the Cape Winelands dedicated and brave fire fighters FIRE AND RESCUE INTERNATIONAL 41
to live in more scenic and less densely populated areas. Others, without the resources to purchase land, are increasingly finding shelter in informal settlements located in the veld. This expanded human development is progressively increasing the vulnerability of lives and properties to wildfires as well as increasing the potential for ignitions to occur. As a result, the likelihood of disastrous fires grows continuously. Rapid response light off road wildland fire fighting vehicles expanding as the incident becomes more complex, with higher-level coordination when and if this is required or anticipated. Wildfires have always been a feature of the environment; however as the district developed, has become an increasingly problematic hazard to life, property and the environment, he elaborated. Chief Wilds said that fires burning on high fire danger days (high temperatures, low relative humidity and high wind speeds) are often uncontrollable and highly dangerous. Weather Dry, hot and windy weather increases the probability of a major wildfire. High winds in particular, can transform a small, easily controllable wildfire into a catastrophic event. High temperatures combined with low humidity will cause fuels to dry out making them burn more readily. Large and intense wildfires can even create their own weather by increasing the velocity of winds near the fire, dramatically increasing the spread and intensity of the veld fire. Wildfires often become uncontrollable during periods of very high temperatures, low humidity and strong winds. Fire season The area normally experiences the most fires between November and April due to intense heat, windy and dry conditions. Maximum temperatures can be as high as 47 degrees Celsius. Strong Southeasterly winds often occur in the area. In recent years, winds of up to 100km/h have been recorded on a regular basis during the fire season. This causes extreme fire behaviour and makes fires difficult to control, confirmed Chief Wilds. Origins and causes of wildfires He described the main reported causes and reasons for spread of wildfires as follows: Runaway prescribed burns, for example when landowners lose control while creating a firebreak. Also during other prescribed burning operations especially on high FDI days Ignitions due to negligent treatment of picnic, cooking or warming fires Runaway fires due to the ignition of informal refuse sites (eg burning compost heaps) Lightning Harvesting of natural produce like honey and buchu Tools and appliances used by landowners in an unsafe manner Lack of firebreaks Overgrown road reserves Arson Urbanisation The urbanisation of natural areas is an accelerating trend in many areas of the Cape Winelands. Many people are moving into natural areas in order Effect of alien invasions Under extreme fire hazard conditions, the total amount of biomass (fuel) is the most important factor to consider. Sites densely invaded by alien shrubs and trees will develop much higher biomass than non-invaded sites of the same age. Alien-invaded sites will generally burn more intensely, which can damage the chemical and physical properties of the soil, with consequences of increased erosion when it rains. Operations 2014/2015 wildfire season The Cape Winelands District Fire Services experienced an extremely busy and rough fire season and responded to a very high number of fires including major devastating fires, which ravaged large areas of Fynbos, timber plantations and agricultural land. The fire services responded and attended to more than 1 300 fires during the summer wildfire season, which stretched the resources, beyond its limits. Fire fighting personnel and equipment from various agencies have been tested and stretched to the limit on numerous occasions and full incident command teams were deployed to manage a number of the operations. A unified command post was established at all the major fires to ensure the safety of the fire crews, to manage and coordinate the incident action plans.the high number of fires and, especially the major and devastating fires, could only be attended to, in many instances, with the assistance of the local municipalities, City of Cape Town, Cape Pine, Cape Nature, Working on Fire, contracted ground wildfire crews and aerial fire fighting support. 42 FIRE AND RESCUE INTERNATIONAL
The most devastating and destructive fires were in the vicinity of Trompsberg in Ceres, De Vierde Liefde and Kluitjieskraal in Wolseley, Saron/ Tulbagh, Jonkershoek and most recently, Bainskloof where fire fighters also struggled to cope with multiple scattered blazes. The majority of the other larger fires were brought under control and extinguished within a period of two days. The extent of the areas of vegetation burned amounts to more than 50 000 hectares. Aerial resources ie helicopters and fixed wing bombers, were called out on 54 occasions. The total cost to Cape Winelands for the use of aerial support and ground wildfire crews amounts to approximately R13 million. The Provincial Government Western Cape (PGWC) also assisted Cape Winelands by providing aerial support as initial attack on ten occasions. A possible disaster to the community was prevented by the rapid response and effective fire suppression operations by all agencies involved. The incident command team and fire crews did extremely well to manage the incidents, contain the devastating blazes and avoid catastrophic fires. There was no loss to life or serious injuries and damage to property limited to only a few buildings destroyed by the fires. Other damages were limited to vineyards, orchards, water pipes, water tanks, hay bales, etc. Cape Pine experienced extensive damage to timber plantations when more than 1 700 hectares of plantation were destroyed during the Kluitjieskraal, Franschhoek and Jonkershoek fires. The fire fighters and pilots displayed tremendous dedication, commitment and skills during the fires that ravaged the Cape Winelands over the past season. Were it not for the fire fighter s exceptional work, Cape Winelands would have experienced far greater damage and losses of property and risks to lives. The bravery and service of these dedicated fire fighters and unsung heroes need to be saluted, enthused Chief Wilds. Our inherent biodiversity, changing weather conditions due to climate change and negligent human behaviour increases the challenges when dealing with fires. The extremely high temperatures that the fire fighting personnel are exposed to, makes them prone to dehydration, which could lead to heat related illnesses. In addition, the excess hours- normal and overtime that the personnel have to work, further exposes them to physical and mental exhaustion that could make them prone to injuries whilst in the line of duty, he added. Some of the outstanding key issues from the season are the size and duration of some of the incidents and the associated high costs of suppression. A lot of the incidents and expansion into complex and costly suppression operations were as a direct result of a few common denominators. These are as follows: Excessively large fuel loads as a result of poorly managed alien clearing operations and poor vegetation management by landowners Inadequate clearance around structures has been repeatedly identified as a major factor in the destruction of homes and other buildings Repetitive deliberate ignitions by members of certain communities Negligence by members of the public and landowners due to open fires during adverse weather conditions (hot, dry and windy). Extended periods of extreme fire weather ie hot, dry and high velocity winds. There were at least two extended heat wave periods in the district during January and February 2015, with no rainfall relief periods at all. Another concern is the general lack of adherence to national legislation by landowners and government institutions, with respect to the National Veld and Forest Fire Act (No 101 of 1998). A single fire protection association (FPA) known as the Winelands Fire Protection Association has been formed and registered and this organisation will attempt to grow its membership and ensure that at least the members are compliant with the relative legislation, with the enforcement of its rules and regulations. It is also the intention to ensure that there is a coordinated and standardised approach to the management of fire risk within the district, such as the specifications and siting of firebreaks, equipment and training of members etc. Hazmat response vehicle and decontamination unit The outdoor training facility FIRE AND RESCUE INTERNATIONAL 43
stages or the spread and impact of larger fires being reduced, reported CFO Wilds. The Cape Winelands District Municipality, through its fire services management, have embarked on a proactive approach to managing wildfires, which occur mainly between the months of November and April each year. Interagency involvement Memorandum of agreement with the Department of Local Government The Cape Winelands District Municipality and the Department of Local Government entered into an agreement whereby the department will assist CWDM managing wildfires to deploy aerial fixed wing aircraft and helicopters to respond to fires in the initial stages and commence an early fire attack with the objective of preventing extended attack operations and major fire spread. Cape Winelands District Veld Fire Workgroup The fire services of the Cape Winelands District Municipality, Cape Nature, Winelands Fire Protection Association and Cape Pine entered into a memorandum of agreement with the objective that the parties agree to cooperate in the optimisation of their organisations and resources for systematically and expeditiously managing wildfires within the Cape Winelands District Municipal area. The workgroup met three times and attended an incident command training exercise prior to the commencement of the wildfire season to exchange information regarding resources available for wildfire suppression, areas of high fire risk, wildfire action plans and incident command structures to plan coordination at all major fires. The Jonkershoek burn scar The operational procedure and incident command system during major fires was discussed and clarified with the aim that all role players will commit themselves to cooperative fire fighting strategies for the summer season. Continual engagement with all role-players was undertaken during the wildfire season to ensure good coordination and relations. Community assistance While the fire fighters were hard at work with their difficult task to manage and control the Jonkershoek fire, members of the Stellenbosch community coordinated a project to provide food and refreshments to the fire fighters. The community diligently got involved and generously offered their help. The management of the fire services and all other fire fighting agencies extend their sincere appreciation and gratitude for the selfless assistance offered by the community of Stellenbosch, all private companies and community organisations that contributed in providing food and refreshments to the fire fighters. Wildfire management It must again be noted that the partnership between Cape Winelands District Municipality, Cape Pine and Cape Nature is working well and will result in fires being contained in their incipient The aforesaid proactive approach to managing these fires includes the rapid response of helicopters, which can be deployed to rapidly respond to fires in the incipient stages and commence an early fire attack with the objective of preventing extended attack operations and major fire spread. This was used with great success during the 2014/2015 summer season. CFO Wilds explained, Please note that fire suppression is only one part of wildfire management. Fire prevention is the most important component of fire services and combined with this is the safety of all our personnel during the fire fighting operations. The management of emergencies is a shared responsibility involving many organisations and people in the community. Although some organisations have specialist roles, wildfire management is not something done by one single organisation. An integrated organisational approach is the only way to ensure timely action to wildfires and provides a mechanism for achieving better outcomes by allowing the fire services, Cape Nature, FPAs and landowners to effectively work together before, during and after a fire, Incident command system At all major fires an incident command post will be established with the priorities of life safety, incident stabilisation and property conservation being the main objective. An incident action plan will be compiled to determine strategic goals and identify tactical objectives needed to accomplish goals. Preparedness planning for wildfire season In terms of the Local Government: Municipal structures Act: 2000, Section 44 FIRE AND RESCUE INTERNATIONAL
84(1)(j) and council s decision in this regard, the Cape Winelands Fire Services is responsible for the fire fighting function of mountain, veld and chemical fires. Due to the very high number of fires and major fires generally experienced during the summer season, resources are stretched to the limit and therefore special planning and organising is required. The Cape Winelands Fire Services, Cape Nature, Cape Pine and members of FPAs realise that preincident planning provides significant advantages to incident commanders and emergency responders, allowing them to capture critical information before an incident actually occurs. The following information was considered during the preparedness planning process: The nature and extent of the fire risk Current capabilities/capacities and constraints of the fire services Analysis of selected fire protection methods Existence or availability of mutual aid resources of other agencies Ability to provide reliable communications Integrated wildfire management plan An integrated fire management plan has been drafted for the Cape Winelands District and this plan aims to strategically set out a number of approaches that will result in more cost-effective and sustainable management of the benefits and threats of wildfires. Implementation of the integrated wildfire management plan will result in healthier natural ecosystems, preservation of catchment areas, communities that are less at risk from fires and a more cost-effective fire suppression program, said Chief Wilds. FIRE AND RESCUE INTERNATIONAL 45