Gauteng residents urged to stay safe as cold weather hits SA

Gauteng residents have been cautioned on safety while the country experiences cold weather over the next few days. 

The SA Weather Service (Saws) on Thursday issued a level 6 warning for disruptive snow, rains and damaging winds as a cold front sweeps over parts of the country.

The City of Johannesburg's emergency services said it noted the alert, which meant residents within the metro may "be tempted to use all sorts of heating devices to try to warm themselves" during the cold weather.

"We urge all our residents to use all heating devices (heaters,  imbawula, paraffin stoves and candles) safely and not to leave them unattended while in use to prevent fire incidents at home during the extremely cold temperatures."

“We have our disaster management monitoring teams in all seven regions of the city, together with all our 29 fire station crews, on high alert to ensure we effectively respond to all emergencies which might occur during the cold front."

The City of Tshwane urged residents to be cautious by observing precautionary measures. These include contacting emergency numbers if there's danger of a fire breaking out, ensuring fires are extinguished before sleeping and not using fuels "that are not designed for your heating unit".

"Never leave children unattended near a burning candle or fire [and] make sure t all candles are placed in safe candleholders," said the city's Lindsay Mnguni.

"Never leave an imbawula or a coal fire to burn overnight without supervision. Extinguish paraffin fires with sand or a fire extinguisher."

TimesLIVE