Firestop News Blog

Aircraft rates for the 2012 fire season.

2012-05-30T12:58:00.001+02:00

Please note that the aircraft rates for the 2012 fire season as well as the 2012 Members fire plan are now available on our website.

Weather.

2011-10-17T18:02:00.001+02:00

The Shafton weather station is live on the Vital Weather link on our website. Should you wish to view any detail, please contact us for a username and password.

Members Fire Plan 2011.

2011-04-11T08:31:00.001+02:00

Please note that the Members Fire Plan for 2011 is available for download on our website. Look under the “ Download “ tab, “ Members Documents.”

2011 Aircraft rates.

2011-04-06T13:54:00.001+02:00

Please note that due to the escalating fuel cost we are currently experiencing, the wet rates for all aircraft will only be finalised during May this year and might need to be amended again during the course of the fire season. We will publish these rates on our website once finalised. We apologise to all our members for the inconvenience.

New web link.

2011-03-30T13:58:00.001+02:00

Please have a look at the new “What’s new in fire” link we have put on our website. You will find the link under the web links tab on our home page. The link is titled “WNIF”. It is an extremely informative site and has links to sites all over the world.

2011-03-24T08:42:00.001+02:00

Please note that the Stats on our Website have now been updated to include the 2010 fire season.

Wildfire 2011.

2010-11-22T17:21:00.001+02:00

Check our home page for the link to the Wildfire 2011 conference at Sun City. Please contact us should you require any more information.

2010 Fire season.

2010-10-26T17:02:00.001+02:00

The 2010 fire season is done and dusted. We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone involved for all the support. Please keep a close eye on the weather forecast over the rainy season as we will probably experience some violent storms. Keep safe and may you all have a very enjoyable festive season.

Act 101 CD.

2010-09-28T17:44:00.000+02:00

We have added a link to the now well known Act 101 CD to our website. On our home page, you will see the Act 101 banner. Click on that and it will take you to the CD. There are a lot of very good Power point presentations on the Act .

Revised veldfire risk classification.

2010-09-21T19:15:00.001+02:00

The revised veldfire risk classification report and map are available on our website. Go to the download tab and look in the FPA link.

Fire break prohibition.

2010-08-02T07:42:00.001+02:00

Please note that it is now illegal to burn fire breaks. Should you have any questions concerning the prohibition, please contact Firestop or your local Fire Protection Association.

KZNFPA fire plan 2010.

2010-06-03T21:07:00.001+02:00

The Members fire plan for 2010 is now available on our web. Please note the changes in the Sappi radio channels.

2010 Burning prohibitions.

2010-05-27T17:22:00.001+02:00

Please note that the 2010 burning prohibitions are now available to download on our web site.

South African Weather Services.

2010-05-18T17:43:00.001+02:00

The South African Weather Services Durban office have now completed the move to the new King Shaka International Airport. The new telephone number for their office is 032 436 3816. The weather line is 082 162 and follow the prompts.

FDI PM update 17/05/2010.

2010-05-17T14:27:00.001+02:00

Please note that we are having a problem sending out the afternoon FDI update via e mail for today 17^th May 2010. It is available on our website via the normal link.

FDI updates.

2010-05-07T08:29:00.001+02:00

Please take note that the FDI update for 2010 is now available on our web site through the normal link.

Annual General Meeting.

2010-04-13T17:46:00.004+02:00

Please be advised that the Annual General Meeting of the KZN FPA will take place at 14h00 on the 23^rd April 2010 at the Shafton fire base. Members wishing to attend should please confirm with Denise before the 20^th April 2010 at 082 777 5887 or denise@firestop.co.za

Updated statistics.

2010-03-16T19:01:00.001+02:00

The 2009 statistics have been published on our site. The 2009 fire report is also available for the Midlands and NECF. We will update the members fire plan, cost structure and burning prohibitions as soon as they are available.

Fire season 2010.

2010-02-22T21:12:00.001+02:00

2010 Has many challenges. We have come out of a fairly easy fire season in 2009. Climate change is the buzz word. El Nino has certainly affected areas of our country. Our message is simple: Be prepared for anything. Ensure that whatever you did in 2009 is continued. The weather will always be there. Conditions in our Province are definitely changing and before we wipe the !@#$$ out of our eyes we will be in the dry season. Good luck for the season.

2009 Fire season.

2009-11-05T16:48:00.001+02:00

The 2009 fire season is now officially done and dusted. On behalf of myself and all my crew, I would like to thank each and all of our members for the excellent support during the season. If it was not for your awareness efforts, we could have had another bad year. Weather conditions were no different to previous years, but we were all far better prepared than in the past.

The Elnino forecast does not look good towards the latter part of our rainfall season, so I urge everyone to be carefull.

May you all have a wonderful Christmas and a prosperous New Year.

Regards the Firestop team.

Prohibition on the burning of fire breaks.

2009-07-31T07:06:00.001+02:00

This is a reminder to everyone out there, that today is the last day of fire break burning. As of Monday, any smoke that is detected should be reported to the nearest authorities as soon as possible.

Weather Links

2009-07-10T14:58:00.002+02:00

Fire Weather
Fire Weather (World)

Please click here to view KZN FDIs

General Weather

Saws Home Page - South African Weather Services - Register at SAWS for all short, medium and long term forecasts

National Forecasts - iAfrica
Detailed weather forecast - PMB

Detailed weather forecast - Mthatha

Detailed weather forecast - Elliot

Detailed weather forecast - Richards Bay

Detailed weather forecast - Ulundi

Weather forecast for Howick in KwaZulu-Natal on YR.NO

WIND GURU (Username firestop Password simon)

Richards Bay Refrigeration - many thanks to Richards Bay Refrigeration!

Kobus Botha's weather website - many thanks Kobus for an excellent weather site

Current Fires - fire detection via satellite - courtesy of Eskom

BBC weather forecasts

Current weather - Kwambonambi

Current weather - Howick

Current weather - Richmond KZN

Freemeteo

Accuweather

Weather Underground

Weather charts, satellite images and radar
Synoptic Chart - SAWS

Synoptic Chart Fire Weather - Netfor
Significant Weather Medium Level
Significant Weather high Level
Near real time Sat Images from MODIS (NASA)
Satellite Images - SAWS

Satellite Images - CSAG

South African Radar Images

Durban Radar

Satellite & Radar overlay
Thunderstorm probability chart

CSAG forecasts University of Cape Town
10-Day Precipitation Outlook for Africa Ten day Precipitation Outlook for Africa
10-Day Temperature Outlook for Africa Ten day Temperature Outlook for Africa
Storm Track Tropical Storm Tracking

El-Nino

El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) (Climate Prediction centre)
Fact Sheet on El-Niño
Information on El Nino

Fire report form.

2009-06-22T11:27:00.001+02:00

Please take note we have added the Fire Report form under the “Downloads” tag on our website.

Link to updated FDI.

2009-05-25T12:54:00.000+02:00

You will have noticed that the link to the FDI on our website still indicates last year’s information. I am busy working with SAWS to correct this as they have changed their website.

In the mean time, you can do the following:

Open the SAWS homepage on our site.

In the bottom left hand corner is a “Products” tab. Open that. You do not have to log in to do this.

On the next screen is the “Specialized forecast tab”. Open that.

On the next screen you will see a tab for the “Fire danger forecast”.

Once that is opened you will have access to all the forecasts.

Corrected 2009 burning prohibitions.

2009-05-25T09:00:00.001+02:00

We have just received the corrected burning prohibitions for 2009 and these are now available on our site to download. Once again, should you require assistance with the interpretation of the regulations, please contact us.