“Every single farm worker in this province is a fire-fighter. That means training on how to fight a fire and the supply of proper personal protection equipment is vital on all of our farms, particularly sugarcane farms.” Terry Tedder KZN FPA OPCO Chairman
With vast tracts of land under sugarcane, macadamia and timber, a runaway fire in KwaZulu-Natal can become a thing of nightmares.
As a result, agriculture insurance companies such as the region’s Patula Risk Agri, the Safire Insurance Company and the sugar industry’s Grocane, have all made it compulsory for insured farmers to take up membership of Fire Protection Associations (FPA) to assist in risk mitigation.
In the Grocane rules and procedures, insured sugarcane growers are given clear instructions on how to burn firebreaks, and a detailed inventory of on-farm fire-fighting equipment, in line with FPA recommendations.
Charles Duminy from Patula Risk Agri and Gareth Smallbones from the Safire Insurance Company also confirmed that any farmers on their books who were insured for fire were required to become members of their local FPA and had to abide by the association’s rules.
Also, according to the country’s National Veld and Forest Act 101 of 1998, provincial governments and district and local municipalities are required by law to belong to an FPA.
Crop sprayers filled with water are primed and ready for take-off – just one of the strategies adopted by the Richmond Fire Protection Association to control fire outbreaks, which can quickly become uncontrollable in the sugarcane fields and timber plantations.
Terry Tedder, Chairman of the KZN FPA Operational Committee, said in the forestry sector, which spans vast tracts of land in KwaZulu-Natal, trained and dedicated teams numbering at least 100 people per corporate member e.g. Sappi or Mondi, took care of fire prevention. “In the sugarcane and macadamia industries every single farm labourer is a fire-fighter. And that is an issue from a safety aspect. Proper training on what to do and how to behave around a fire is critically important,” he said.
Tedder agreed that the on-farm requirements by the FPAs were vital for improved fire prevention. “Agriculture insurance is a partnership between the farmer and the insurer. It’s there for that freak, once-in-lifetime event. I think the outlay for fire protection can be viewed as an investment rather than a cost by farmers.”
To this end, the FPAs in KwaZulu-Natal have employed artificial intelligence to assist with fire prevention.
In a control room high in the timber-clad hills near Richmond, about 678 000ha of rural districts and agricultural land under sugarcane and timber plantations are monitored 24/7 for 365 days a year for fire.
The Lions River FPA in the central Midlands has a similar operation, with 19 cameras covering 300 000ha, which include the Greytown region.
Siyabonga Phoswa keeps an eye on a bank of monitors displaying real-time information relayed to the control room by 14 cameras monitoring fire outbreaks in the Richmond area.
Similarly in Zululand, the regional FPA has 19 cameras covering around 400 000ha.
“In the Richmond area we have about 80% of the area covered with 14 cameras. The artificial intelligence aspect reacts as soon as there is a change in the picture, in other words when the cameras detect smoke during the day and the colour orange at night. As soon as the fire is picked up an alarm goes off in our control room and the picture of the fire is displayed on the screens in front of the controllers,” Tedder said.
During a visit to the Richmond control room where four staff were monitoring at least three banks of computer screens each, the alarm was continuous. “We have about 48 fires burning right now,” Tedder said.
The 39 cameras, which cost about R850 000, and more than R21 000 each to run every month, are mounted on steel towers between 30m and 75m high, and rotate at 360°, completing a full circle in two and a half minutes. The cameras take images which they send back to the control room, and if the camera detects smoke, an alarm is triggered. “The cameras pinpoint the location and send the coordinates in real time. Once the alarm is triggered our controllers will contact the teams on the ground who will physically check on the blaze.”
Tedder said the system also supplied real-time weather and lightning forecasts. “Statistics show that while we have yet to reduce the number of fires annually, we have cut the reaction time significantly. This means we bring the fires under control more quickly than in the past.”
And although this year’s fire season was not the worst on record, it had been “rough”. “We have about 572 fires between May and October in the Richmond area a year. Usually by May 15 we have had our first frost. This year it was mid-July. The earlier the frost, the earlier we can burn firebreaks. The cut-off time for firebreak preparation is the end of July. That puts a lot of pressure on farmers to get their breaks sorted in time. That kind of pressure can lead to mistakes, so we had to be very alert during that time,” Tedder said.
FPA KZN OPCO Chair Terry Tedder in the control centre high in the hills behind Richmond in KwaZulu-Natal.
He also warned farmers to confirm they had the correct permissions before starting any controlled burn. “Usually farmers phone in and let us know that they are going to be burning firebreaks or sugarcane and we will give them a reference number.”
- Despite the fire season ending in KwaZulu-Natal (November 1) farmers are urged to remain vigilant and be aware of any fire outbreaks with the following management tips provided by the Lions River FPA in a weekly newsletter.
- Comply with the rules and regulations of regional FPAs.
- All burning is undertaken entirely at the landowner’s risk.
- Keep a check on all on-farm firefighting equipment to make sure it is in working order and is maintained.
- Be sure there is enough personal protective equipment for firefighters and that it is worn during fire burning operations.
- Carry out regular radio check and make sure the radio is on the applicable network.
- No burning over weekends and after sunset unless authorised by the FPA.
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Scorched macadamia trees after a fire that ripped through a Lowveld orchard as a result of a runaway blaze from a neighbouring farm.
