The Hartbeestfontein Conservancy in the Magaliesberg Biosphere take fire protection seriously.

The Conservancy invites members and non-members to belong to the Fire Protection Association.  And actions speak loudly.  A course in fire fighting took place at Shelter Rock on 30 April 2010. About 40 FPA members and farm workers attended the course and are now somewhat better equipped to fight fire.

The Doen Greyling, Chairman of the FPA says “We had the usual problem of rubbish dumps that were burnt without supervision; causing veld fires as well as problems to gain access to properties where veld fires were present."

Deon reports on the main problems:

• Uncontrolled veld fires outside our area, spreading into our area.
• Uncontrolled veld fires that started on properties where the landowners are not members of the FPA, therefore making coordinated efforts to deal with such fires very difficult and in some cases impossible.
• Uncontrolled veld fires that started on derelict land where the owners are not present and no control is executed.
• Veld fires that started and spread because landowners do not control these fires as they do not have the required equipment, do not adhere to the FDI rating (Fire Danger Rating) that is sent to FPA members, and in general, ignorance of the legislation. It was found that 95% of veld fires in August and September started on days when the FDI rating was orange.
• Too much time was wasted on fighting fires around buildings and other property in stead of preventing the fires from spreading. Owners do not clean around buildings, in order to protect it against veld fires.
• Neighbours and the FPA coordinator are not advised beforehand when fire breaks are burned, resulting in unnecessary response and wasted man hours, fuel and communication costs.

Rural communities can learn from the vigilant response of the Hartebeestfontein Conservancy to the risk posed by wildfires.

The Conservancy thanks Johann and Corry Botha for making their facilities at Shelter Rock available for the training and to Lourie Laatz for the photos.