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National Women’s Day in South Africa is a powerful day for equal rights
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In South Africa, August is Women’s Month and each year 9 August is celebrated as National Women’s Day. National Women’s Day celebrates the strength and resilience of women and their contribution to society and country.
National Women’s Day forms part of South Africa’s Women’s Month, which provides an opportunity to pay tribute to the generations of women whose struggles laid the foundations for the progress made in empowering women and achieving gender equality to date.
National Women’s Day is a South African public holiday commemorating the 1956 march of approximately 20 000 women to the Union Buildings in Pretoria to petition containing more than 100 000 signatures against the country’s pass laws that required South Africans defined as “black” under The Population Registration Act to carry an internal passport, known as a pass, that served to maintain population segregation, control urbanisation and manage migrant labour during the apartheid era.
The 1956 protest saw members of the Federation of South African Women (FSAW) rally against the government. The protest was supported by mothers, daughters, sisters and friends who decided enough was enough and came together to initiate change. Not only did they march, they remained standing outside the Union Buildings in silence for 30 minutes in a non-violent and very powerful display of unity.
The first National Women’s Day was celebrated on 9 August 1995. In 2006, a reenactment of the march was staged for its 50th anniversary, with many of the 1956 march veterans participating.
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| A world first for fire fighter training in South Africa! |
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The Cape Winelands District Municipality’s (CWDM’s) Fire Services are well-known throughout South Africa and in many other countries for their firefighting skills. What few people realise is that the CWDM Fire Services are also recognised for the excellent training offered at the CWDM Fire Academy. Gone are the days of spending hours setting up exams and tests and then more hours marking them, hand collating papers to find common areas that need more attentions and manually extracting data for reporting. Together with Professor Wilfred Fritz and Solomon Smit, both electrical engineers at Alpha Tower, the academy has developed a digital training management system that eliminates all the tedious administrative work relating to training and examinations.
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| Thatched-roof house burned down; firefighters saved three outbuilding lapas, Waterval, Pretoria |
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A thatched-roof house burned down but firefighters saved three outbuilding lapas in Waterval, Pretoria on Saturday afternoon, 27 July 2024. Lindsay Mnguni, acting public information and media liaison officer at the City of Tshwane Emergency Services, said, “The Emergency Services Department responded to a house fire incident in Wallmannsthal Road in Waterval. The house fire was initially reported to the City of Tshwane Emergency Services Call Centre (ECC) as a grassfire at about 14h40.”
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| Ohio PFAS Takeback Programme collects nearly 14 000 gallons of toxic foam, US |
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An Ohio initiative to collect and destroy foam that contains harmful forever chemicals has gathered nearly 14 000 gallons of it from 117 fire departments across the state. This includes 10 fire departments in Greene, Butler and Clark counties, according to the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The Aqueous Film Forming Foam (AFFF) Takeback Programme is operated by the Ohio EPA, the State Fire Marshal’s Office and science and technology company Battelle. The program is open to all Ohio fire departments, local governments, state certified fire and EMS training schools and government-owned airports.
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| Fire at Tree Top Chalet claims three lives, Garden Route National Park, Knysna |
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On Thursday, 18 July 2024, a fire broke out at the Tree Top Chalet in the Knysna Section of the Garden Route National Park in the Harkerville Forest resulting in the unfortunate passing of three people. The affected chalet was completely gutted. South African Parks (SANParks) spokesperson JP Louw said the affected chalet was completely gutted. Louw added that booking records suggest that the victims of the fire included two SANParks staff members.
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| City Of Tshwane firefighters participate In 702 Walk the Talk |
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The City of Tshwane Emergency Services Department firefighters took part in the annual 702 Walk The Talk walk held on Sunday, 28 July 2024. 20 firefighters dressed in fire gear braved the cold Sunday morning and joined the thousands of people who walked the 8km distance from Freedom Park to the Union Buildings in Pretoria. They were even more excited and energetic when they learned that two senior managers of the department, acting Chief of Emergency Services, Dr Tanja Terblanché and Divisional Chief Thabo Charles Mabaso, were also participating in the walk.
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| City of Cape Town firefighters make a run to recruit more donors |
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The City of Cape Town’s firefighters, along with colleagues from other City directorates, will continue their running streak – this time at the Totalsports Women’s Race, which is set to take place on Friday, 9 August 2024, along with DKMS (Deutsche Knochenmarkspenderdatei), to raise awareness of blood cancer and blood disorders and also recruit many more people as stem cell donors.
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| 16 EMS groups publish joint statement on EMS performance metrics – beyond response times |
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16 US national and international EMS, patient safety and public policy associations have partnered on the release of a joint statement on EMS Performance Metrics – Beyond Response Times. The joint statement encourages EMS systems and community leaders to implement an approach to EMS system performance that prioritizes patient-centred care and uses a broad, balanced set of clinical, safety, experiential, equity, operational and financial measures to evaluate the effectiveness of EMS systems.
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| Featured FRI Magazine article: Are wildfire investigations really necessary to assist in reducing future fires? by Rob Erasmus, Enviro Wildfire Services (FRI Vol 2 no 7) |
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This week’s featured Fire and Rescue International magazine article is: Are wildfire investigations really necessary to assist in reducing future fires? Written by Rob Erasmus, Enviro Wildfire Services (FRI Vol 2 no 7). We will be sharing more technical/research/tactical articles from Fire and Rescue International magazine on a weekly basis with our readers to assist in technology transfer. This will hopefully create an increased awareness, providing you with hands-on advice and guidance. All our magazines are available free of charge in PDF format on our website and online at ISSUU. We also provide all technical articles as a free download in our article archive on our website.
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| Fire stations of the world: Unified Fire Service Area Fire Station 125 Midvale, designed with firefighter mental health in mind, Utah, US |
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Officially opened on 13 December 2022, Unified Fire Service Area Fire Station No 125 provides the city of Midvale with an efficient, state-of-the-art, healthy station for its crew and the citizens who they protect. The three-bay, 15 800 square foot prototype fire station, located in the heart of Midvale, Utah in the US, houses 10 firefighters. The AJC Architects’ design solution addressed rapid response times by having a direct linear path to the apparatus bay.
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| Technology: Türkiye enhances forest fire fighting capabilities |
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Türkiye has strengthened its fleet to combat forest fires, making it one of the few countries with advanced firefighting capabilities, according to Agriculture and Forestry Deputy Minister Abdulkadir Polat. Polat highlighted the extraordinary increase in forest fires caused by climate change and praised Türkiye’s advancements in firefighting equipment, both aerial and ground, which have reduced forest loss. Polat emphasised Türkiye’s significant advances in aerial power, pointing out that it is one of only two countries that employ unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technology for forest fire detection.
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| Fitness: How to become a resilient firefighter/first responder Part 2: Mental health and fitness |
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This is the second of a three part series talking about resiliency in the fire service. This episode explains the connection between fitness and mental health. Please listen for some great dialogue and information to help you get motivated to stay active and fit.
Source: Fire Rescue Fitness (FRF)
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| Training: Multiple victim rescue using a CMC LEVR |
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This video will show another option for using a CMC LEVR system to rescue multiple victims, (simulated by using sandbags) as well as the rescuer them self. In this updated video we will demonstrate another method where the rescuer’s primary descender does not have to be used in a “reverse deployment” mode. This method is more efficient and faster than a technique we demonstrated in a previous video.
Source: Dale G Pekel
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| Vintage: Seattle’s vintage fire trucks, US |
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Meet the man who’s mission in life is to preserve the history of the Seattle Fire Department. One photo, document and antique fire engine at a time. Generally, fire engines pump water and fire trucks haul ladders. It’s one of the many lessons I learned from Galen Thomaier, a former Seattle firefighter and a co-founder of Seattle’s Last Resort Fire Department, an organization dedicated to the preservation of historical items relating to the Seattle Fire Department. The collection includes helmets, nozzles, photos, documents and, of course, more than a dozen shiny red firefighting vehicles.
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| Inspiration: Quote of the week |
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A truly effective team comprises diverse individuals who bring unique backgrounds, skills, and experiences to the table. These team members collaborate well together and genuinely respect, care for and trust one another. This foundation of mutual respect and trust allows the team to work cohesively and effectively toward the achievement of their goals. Inspire your team with our Amazon bestseller, “Unlock the Hidden Leader: Become The Leader You Were Destined To Be.” This book has already transformed countless leaders; now it’s your turn. Click to discover more: https://geni.us/4JmlQU
Source: Leadership First
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