'Bored children' starting fires a problem - SANParks

[schumi]

Cape Town - Authorities in the Western Cape on Monday expressed their frustration with children entertaining themselves by starting fires during the holiday season."We sit with the problem of unsupervised and bored children... especially this time of year. They want to see a little bit of excitement, they want to see a helicopter, they want to see firefighting crews. So what do they do – they start fires," Philip Prins from the South African National Parks (SANparks) said on Monday.

Prins was speaking at a wildfire awareness press briefing held by the Western Cape government at the Newlands fire base.

Referring to the Table Mountain nature reserve, Prins said SANparks had an incredibly difficult job keeping the urban boundary safe.

"The problem [is]... we are managing the park and right on the boundaries of the park we've got informal settlements. If you go down to the Hout Bay area ... we are sitting with Imizamo Yethu, Mandela Park. If you go down south, we [are] sitting with Masiphumelele. If you go further north, areas from Green point, Sea point, Clifton...you talk about the most expensive real-estate in the country," Prins said.

"The most fires originate from human settlements and developments on the boundary of the park."

Province ready for fire season
Prins said the Table Mountain nature reserve also struggled with the issue of vagrants, who allegedly started up to 70% of fires in the park.

The Western Cape government said that they are ready for the upcoming fire season.

"We have eight helicopters, four water bombers and eight spotter command and control aircraft that can be deployed to incidents across the province. There are 36 runways available and prepared for these aircraft to utilise in case of need," Western Cape MEC for local government Aton Bredell said.

Up to 2 100km of 20m-wide boundaries in nature reserves have also been cleared by SANparks and CapeNature to keep fires from rapidly spreading.

"We live in a fire-prone province, we have fire dependent vegetation so we will always have fires. But we need to make sure that we put measures in place to control [the fires]," Ettienne du Toit from the province's fire and rescue services said.

News24
http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/bored-children-starting-fires-a-problem-sanparks-20161213

 

[Kloofvreter]

 

[Lupus]

It's difficult for parents to actually look after kids in the school holidays, companies only give you two weeks leave, while kids get something like 2/3 months off, how is it possible for adults to try supervise their children? Is it up to the state to have holiday programs for kids? As a lot of the kids are from backgrounds where parents can't pay for additional aftercare? I am really wondering what would the solution be to bored kids on holiday?
I remember when I was about 13 or 14 my dad would pretty much leave me at home, what else could he do? I was just old enough to look after myself but still a child really, so I did get up to some mischievous things, but there wasn't a lot he could do as there aren't holiday camps for kids in SA.

 

[Spliffcat]

I set our palm tree alight in our garden 4 decades ago my ass still stings at the thought.
Whip the little turds when caught.

 

[bigboy529]

Die wie nie wil hoor nie sal gemoer word...

 

[3WA]

I am really wondering what would the solution be to bored kids on holiday?

Birth control.


Seriously, I was as much a brat as any kid (bird killing, trap building, small fire starting) but there's something seriously wrong with the upbringing and reasoning skills of any child old enough to start a fire but unable to realise the risks and costs.

 

[itareanlnotani]

Deep South, its Ocean View kids, and then the vagrants living in Blackhill causing 90% of the fires, further down past Kom its typically idiotic morons throwing lit cigarettes out of their cars.

Masi does tend to suspiciously burn the wetland behind the current squatter camp to extend though. Always that area too.

DA is supposed to move Fish Hoek fire station to somewhere within old Solole in the next year or four, which may help the regular Masi fires. I'm fully expecting fun and games though with the new petrol stasie outside of Masi. That seems a silly place to put one, when they set fire to stuff in that very location barely a year ago.

Will take bets on how long it is before the adult entertainers at Masi set fire to it, and cause a *huge* hollywood style explosion there.

 

[Mila]

Well, when the municipality doesn't feel like cutting down the grass on the sidewalks they set it on fire. For some reason, there are a lot of people out there that think that is the way to deal with dead grass and bushes that you want to get rid of.

I grew up on a farm with fruit trees. The amount of fires I had to help stop. And then Just down the road, some guy is walking with a stick with an ember on it lighting it as he goes. We asked him to stop and he said no. That is what you do to the veld.

Comes down to education and parenting.

Most people send their kids to school as a nanny service. They do not care how unruly they are. And teachers are expected to do something with them.
You responsibility as a parent is to deal with the shyt you raised 4 times a year during holidays. It is not the state's duty to entertain your kids.