Relief Fund
One relationship has spanned the Atlantic Ocean for more than a decade and has spawned one of the most successful firefighting programs on the African continent.
Working on Fire is a South African government-funded, multi-partner organization focused on integrated fire management and wildland firefighting. But its roots go back to the United States, where for many years officials from the U.S. Forest Service shared their expertise with visiting South African firefighters.
Inspired by the programs they saw, the South African firefighters eventually developed their own version to suit their landscape, both physically and economically. The program has been phenomenally effective, so much so that firefighters from the United States want to visit South Africa to observe and learn. Currently, both countries are engaged in a training exchange in what is becoming a satisfying reciprocal relationship.
“I started visiting North America some 10 years ago with the express aim of studying the firefighting and management systems in place,” says Johan Heine, Working on Fire general manager. “At the time I was a manager with the South African Forest Fire Association [FFA is a private sector wildland firefighting initiative], and I was very keen to see what kind of infrastructure had been built up by the [U.S. Forest Service] and associated agencies.”
After several years of regular visits, the FFA was awarded a tender by the South African government's Department of Water Affairs and Forestry to implement an aerial and ground resource plan for fighting wildfires. Heine and his South African colleagues arrived at a strategy which they felt could be practically applied in their own country. Working on Fire was officially launched in 2003, combining sound land management principles and best practice wildland firefighting expertise with the need to create jobs and develop skills.
The project has proved an astounding success, winning awards for its innovative approach and praise for its effective design. Essentially, it is a program based on international principles with a distinctly indigenous twist. For instance, unlike in the United States where firefighting squads often are made up of seasonal workers, Working on Fire employs on a long-term basis.
“What we did was look at what works and then adapted it,” says Val Charlton, Working on Fire's advocacy and awareness manager. “It would have been pointless to reinvent the wheel, not to mention the cost in terms of time and effort.”
A recent visit to the Firewise Communities USA Conference in Denver, provided further encouragement and inspiration, as Working on Fire is also tasked with rolling out a national fire awareness program. “Once again, we have been able to learn from the USA,” says Charlton. Firewise SA rollout commenced in the Western Cape Summer fire season and will extend to the northern parts of South Africa during 2007.
“There are a lot of similarities between the U.S. and South Africa, which helped the process,” says Charlton. “The American prairies are like our grasslands. And areas such as California and the Western Cape are very much alike — you can compare chaparral and fynbos, for example. Both burn like crazy — and they need to be allowed to burn as they are fire adapted ecosystems, but both areas have an extensive and highly populated wildland-urban interface zone.”
And when they do burn, there's trouble. In South Africa, as in the United States, fires regularly destroy large tracts of land including farms and plantations, endangering lives and properties in the process.
Of course, there are differences, too. The United States has vast tracts of natural, slow growing coniferous forests, whereas sub-Saharan African savannas and grasslands benefit from short fire cycles of a few years.
Sociologically, there are other differences. While the end of race discrimination and the establishment of a new democracy has successfully transformed many sectors within South Africa, the country is grappling with a very high unemployment rate. Figures vary, but average at around 30% of the population. Of those without jobs, many are young with little or no career options.
With this group in mind, Working on Fire was established as a poverty relief program that has recruited and trained previously unemployed men and women into a national resource of more than 1,000 proud firefighters to date. This includes 47 teams of 22-person Hot Shot crews and 100 crew leaders who are deployed at 47 fire bases in eight fire-prone regions across the country. Primarily the crews act as hand crews and use mainly hand tools to accomplish their work.
Of the recruits who have been trained, 95% are between 18 and 35 years old, 27% are women and 77% are black. They are employed full time on a one-year contract, which is renewed annually based on performance. The program lasts three years. Firefighters earn a basic wage of ZAR42.50 (approximately $6) per day. Type 2 crew leaders earn ZAR98.98 ($14) and Type 1 crew leaders earn ZAR120 ($17) per day. For many of the recruits, this is the very first time they are earning a regular salary.
The program was established under the umbrella of the Expanded Public Works Program, underpinned by South Africa's National Veld and Forest Act of 1998 and the Disaster Management Act of 2002. The Working for Water Program of the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry funds the program to the tune of ZAR47.3 million ($6.75 million) per year. Partnerships with the Department of Provincial and Local Government, the South African Air Force, South African National Parks, Provincial Disaster Management Authorities, and private forestry companies, amongst others, ensure substantial cost and efficiency benefits.
Apart from the ground crews, Working on Fire comprises several other components. This includes a team of aerial firefighting professionals, who operate helicopters, fixed wing bombers and spotter aircraft. These aerial resources are coordinated locally, provincially and nationally, forming a pool available to support ground forces with initial attack actions.
Working on Fire also runs provincial operational centers, which coordinate the movements of all Working on Fire ground and aerial resources. The operational centers supply long and short-term fire weather forecasts daily, and coordinate the planning, reaction and suppression of fires in their areas.
As a national organization, Working on Fire requires management and operations structures that can function separately and independently. The enterprise is headed by a chief executive officer and five senior executive managers responsible for the individual portfolios of corporate services, finance, ground operations, air operations and advocacy.
Reporting to the executive management team are nine senior managers responsible for the day-to-day running of the organization in areas such as human resources, training and communications. Reporting to these managers are eight regional managers, who liaise with 50 partner base managers regarding the daily operation of crews who are guided by a crew leader.
“In all, Working on Fire employs just over 1,400 people nationally,” says Heine. Of these, it is the 1,056 firefighters who make up the most visible face of the organization, instantly identifiable at the scene of any major wildfire in their bright yellow uniforms. For many of the recruits, joining Working on Fire has drastically changed their lives.
Take 25-year-old Khomotso Moagi of Bushbuckridge. A single mother with two children aged eight and six living in an area with chronic unemployment, she was finding it hard to support her family. When she heard Working on Fire was recruiting firefighters, she applied.
The interview process included a tough physical test that featured running and push-ups. Firefighters working in wilderness conditions need to be fit to cope with the demands of the job. Fortunately, Moagi had what was needed. She got the job, and two years later is taking on leadership opportunities within the program.
She was one of the lucky ones. Given unemployment statistics it has been common for up to 300 people to apply for 22 jobs at Working on Fire. Fitness is not the only requirement — mental acuteness, career objectives and past working experience also counts. However, literacy is not a criteria. Rather, the ability to work in a team, physical stamina and a cooperative mentality are prized capabilities in candidates.
And once an individual has landed a post with Working on Fire, the competition doesn't stop there. A tough three-day induction course prepares trainees for the kind of conditions they will face while employed by Working on Fire.
They will be on call to fight fires in mountains, in forestry plantations and in grasslands throughout the country. Teams may be based in their home region but could be away for up to six weeks at a time, living in communal tents and faring for themselves. There are two recognizable fire seasons in the country, the dry summer months in the Western Cape and the dry winter months throughout the rest of the country, which means teams can be kept busy pretty much throughout the year.
For firefighters with children, this can be difficult but many make special plans to cope.
“As a firefighter you have to be able to give your full attention to the job at hand,” says Moagi, who has placed her children in the care of her parents” I prefer being single and knowing my children are in safe hands.”
The training standards set by Working on Fire meet and exceed the Forest Protection Units Standards. The program has adopted standards from the United States. Known as the Task Book System, this lists tasks the candidate must be able to complete before he or she is regarded as competent.
Essential Working on Fire training takes place during a recruit's first year and includes standard firefighting procedures and safety rules, attack methods and tools, and how to handle equipment such as pumps and hoses. Hot Shot crews are provided with tools and personal protective equipment and taught how to use them. Training is thorough; for example, all Working on Fire teams have mop-up training and use cold trailing handheld infrared heat detectors to ensure that fires do not re-ignite because they were not properly extinguished. There are daily physical training sessions and job-related lectures (on first aid and fire behavior, for example) as well as life skills courses covering issues such as personal banking and HIV/AIDS awareness.
There has been a very low attrition rate among recruits, with only a few people dropping off the training course due to reasons that could not have been foreseen.
“There's a very strict code of conduct within the Working on Fire program, and our operation is military in style,” says Heine. “It's very necessary, in order for firefighters to perform in dangerous and stressful conditions.”
Teams are taught to look out for themselves and for each other, and that the life of a Working on Fire employee is paramount. At the same time, they need have the discipline to maneuver at maximum capacity — and that means being able to function as a well-drilled unit.
“Any breaches of discipline or regulations results in instant dismissal,” says Heine. “We have a zero-tolerance policy. As anybody who fights wildfires knows, you cannot afford to ignore commands in a high-risk situation.”
Within this disciplined outfit a strong sense of camaraderie has built up among the firefighters. Morale is high, and there is positive, friendly competition between Hot Shot crews. Heine credits aspects of the program such as its open-door policy at all levels of management and its clarity about conditions of employment as reasons. But there are other factors; one of the most important is the sense of pride that these firefighters, previously unemployed and disadvantaged, have in their work.
“I wanted to be part of this program more than anything,” says Phumza Matitiba, a recruit who came though the ranks to become regional manager of the Eastern Cape, responsible for 100 firefighters. “Fighting fire has given me a spirit. It has shown me that I can be someone, that I can reach my potential. I know now I can be a leader.”
As well as tackling wildfires around South Africa — in 2005 Working on Fire assisted in fighting in more than 1,000 nationally — the program is also involved in new firefighting innovations in South Africa.
One of these is the Operation Firewatch Project, an early detection and rapid attack firefighting project currently being tested in Cape Town. This project uses forest firefighting techniques to suppress fires in slum areas. Fires are identified though strategically placed video cameras that send real-time images to a centralized computer monitoring center where trained personnel activate city ground forces and Working on Fire aerial firefighting resources.
This has proved extremely effective in combating fires in informal settlements where homemade shacks are built very close to each other, often of highly flammable material, and burn fast and fiercely. The results of such fires are often devastating. More than 100 people died in nearly 2,000 informal settlement fires in Cape Town and surrounds during 2005. Over 8,000 housing structures were destroyed, leaving 28,000 people destitute. The material cost to residents was conservatively estimated at around ZAR91 million ($13 million).
Because informal settlements continue to grow, due to a formal housing shortage, the fires will continue. According to a Central Statistical Services presentation in the South African Parliament in April 2005, informal housing settlements were home to an estimated 1.45 million households in 2001, with an expected 2% growth per year. Statistics show that shack fires are increasing.
“Fighting fires in informal settlements presents its own set of challenges,” says Heine. “Delays in initial reporting of fires, the intense heat generated by highly flammable building materials, tricky — sometimes impossible — access, and a lack of water hydrants are just some of the difficulties firefighters face.
“While Working on Fire focuses primarily on veld and wild firefighting, there are overlaps in the way we tackle these fires and how informal settlement fires can be approached. Delivering water to a fire is the best way to quickly extinguish it. With a lack of water points in informal settlements, it makes sense to drop non-toxic foam to cool down an area so land-based firefighters can move in.”
To this end, when a fire has been spotted, firefighting methods are improved by the use of spotter aircraft, fixed-wing bomber aircraft and helicopter assistance as a rapid aerial firefighting response, dropping Class A foam to contain and cool the fire.
It all forms a part of establishing a long-term, sustainable integrated fire management system in South Africa. It's a system which features both private and public involvement, and which is supported by various new pieces of legislation such as the 1998 the National Veld and Forest Fire Act, which places the responsibility for the starting and spreading of a wildfire with the land user, and actively promotes the formation of local fire protection associations.
“We can't force people to form or join FPAS, which can make a huge difference in terms of cooperatively fighting wildfires — but we can encourage them,” says Charlton.
Education is extremely important in this respect — and here too Working on Fire members play a role, giving talks and demonstrations to the public and helping their own communities to become more fire-wise.
In recognition of the essential service that Working on Fire provides, the program received the prestigious Impumelelo Innovations Platinum Award last year, awarded to projects that are “innovative, sustainable and replicable.”
And this year, Working on Fire will receive further national government funding of ZAR196 million ($28 million) over the next three years to maintain its efforts in facilitating and implementing integrated fire management practice across South Africa. It will use this budget according to a predetermined plan, focusing primarily upon creating centers of excellence in 40 high fire-risk areas, aerial and ground wildland firefighting, general education and awareness about wildland fires, upskilling and capacity building under the employment creation component, facilitating cost-sharing partnerships, improving national coordination of firefighting resources, weather forecasting and fire fuel reduction measures.
Heine is understandably pleased with all of this, but says there is still much work to be done.
“In the United States there are around 30,000 firefighters,” he says. “A percentage are seasonal, but it's still a substantial figure. I reckon we need 5,000 permanent wildland firefighters in South Africa in order to function optimally.
“We'll just keep going. It's been nothing but a success since we started, so we know we're doing something right.”
Integrated fire management is a series of actions that includes fire awareness activities, fire prevention activities, prescribed burning, resource sharing and co-ordination, fire detection, fire suppression and fire damage rehabilitation at local, provincial and national levels to create a sustainable and well balanced environment, reduce unwanted wildfire damage and promote the beneficial use of fire.
Karen Rutter is a correspondent for the Working on Fire program.
