VKLM FIRE

 

The portal for public information to residents within the Victor Khanye Municipal area on safety

 

Sunday, 21 January 1900
00:00

Legal stuff:

 

  • This Website and all of its sub-pages are an independent run website with the pure intention of providing the community residing within the Victor Khanye Local Municipality information related to fire, life safety, Disaster Management and weather outlooks as well as notifications for adverse conditions that may impact all during a disaster or threatening disaster. In NO CIRCUMSTANCES is this page to be considered as an official page of the Victor Khanye Local Municipailty or representing this organization. To stop any allegations it is hereby registered that this site will remain independant and are 100% funded by the owner thereof.
  • The Victor Khanye Local Municipal website can be visited at www.vklm.gov.za
  • All weather related data is received or extracted with gratitude from the South African Weather Services (www.weathersa.co.za) with the exception of the UV Index map, which is obtained from SAWX (www.sawx.co.za), temperature graphs are obtained from Accuweather (www.accuweather.com). It may occur that the SAWS site is unavailable at the time of refreshing this page, on which instance the data from Windy (www.windy.com) are used for graphical representation and with comparison to the meteoblue or ECMWF data available from this site.
  • Warnings are issued by the South African Weather Services (SAWS) ONLY in the form of emails or message systems and those relevant to the Victor Khanye Municipal area is published under the "Weather Warnings" box on the main page for information and early warning purposes to the community.

 

By notice from the Webmaster

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Public Awareness

 

Every legally filled LPG cylinder has a specific brand owner identification, the same owner-branded safety seal and a unique serial number on this safety seal over the cylinder valve. These containers are marked "Property of (……)" and "NEVER SOLD" stamped on the footring or collar.

“Ensure your supplier is properly authorised and the LPGas cylinders they sell/exchange have been legally filled in terms of the requirements of the Occupational Health & Safety Act’s Pressure Equipment Regulations (PER). Failure to comply could have serious consequences.”  (LPGASA statement"

“Do not be fooled by what may appear to be a legitimate business selling Brand-owned (like Afrox Handigas – if it is not an Afrox Gas & Gear or an accredited Afrox Handigas distributor) this also apply to distributors of other brand-owned cylinders such as TOTAL, ORYX, BP, EASIGAS, and others, then the cylinders are illegally filled (SANS 10019).

Don’t support these resellers and don't buy illegally traded or refilled gas cylinders.

 

Here’s why!
 

Recently a growing trend is for unlicensed people to obtain empty commercially branded LPG gas cylinders, refill them illegally, often with unverified (Unauthorized mixtures) gas, and then resell them to unsuspecting consumers possibly at cheaper price than the regulated market price index (Similar to the petrol price regulation).

 

This makes these cylinders potentially hazardous here’s why.
 

Why you shouldn’t buy illegally refilled or traded gas cylinders

 

Quite simply you SHOULD NOT buy illegally refilled or traded gas cylinders. It is unethical and they may be at risk of leaking or failing. This comprises the safety of you and your family and puts your lives at risk because:
 

  • Only companies who have specific written approval from brand owner cylinders and have specially trained people using authorised equipment can refill gas containers safely and correctly, so you cannot be sure that the gas cylinder you buy from illegal traders has been refilled according to proper safety guidelines.
  • Often these cylinders have not been properly checked for safe continuous use, so they are extremely dangerous and have the potential to leak.
  • Gas cylinders should be filled to 80% capacity. Without the correct equipment, they could be under- or over-filled.
  • If they have been overfilled, then the gas container could be hazardous if used or exposed to excessive heat and will release liquid instead of gas vapour.
  • If they have been underfilled, this may not be dangerous but it is fraudulent as unsuspecting consumers are being defrauded by being charged for more LPGas than they actually received.

 

If you do buy illegally refilled or traded gas containers (because its cheaper), then you are:
 

  • encouraging the illegal trade and refilling of gas cylinders and subsequently also, crime
  • Any insurance claims could be declined if such containers are found on your premises. (Read criminal activity clause on your insurance policy)
  • breaking the law as you are in contravention of the General Law Amendment Act, 1955 (Act No. 62 Of 1955), Section 37 which reads
“Any person who in any manner, otherwise than at a public sale, acquires or receives into his or her possession from any other person stolen goods, without having reasonable cause for believing at the time of such acquisition or receipt that such goods are the property of the person from whom he or she receives them or that such person has been duly authorized by the owner thereof to deal with or to dispose of them, shall be guilty of an offence.”
 

When you purchase a new or replacement gas container (9Kg and above), to ensure your safety, ALWAYS check that the gas cylinder

 
  • is not damaged, dented or rusted.
  • has an unbroken seal with the gas company’s brand name or logo on it which also matches the name printed on the cylinder itself and a unique serial number printed on the seal. This proves that the bottle was filled legally by the gas company and that the gas cylinder is safe to use.
  • has a test date which is still valid and has not passed.


Always purchase your gas cylinders from a reputable company, registered to deal, store and use gas, and exchange your gas cylinders at an authorised dealer, so that you can be sure that the cylinders have been legally filled to meet the requirements as set out by the Occupational Health and Safety Act’s pressure equipment regulations.

 

Purschasing your LPGas from the spaza shop, general grocer or the café down the street, the chances are 100% that those cylinders are illegal..... And probably dangerous!!

How to identify illegally refilled gas cylinders

 

To ensure that the gas bottle you are purchasing is not illegally filled, check for the following:
 

  • Check the seal on the cylinder for the gas supplier’s official branding. The seal must contain the supplier’s official branding and match the logo that is printed on the cylinder.
  • Look for the supplier’s official stamp on the cylinder’s neck ring. This stamp and the seal must both have the same company name as well as other pertinent information like tank weight, tank capacity, test pressure, minimum wall thickness, serial number and country of manufacture.
  • Check that the gas supplier’s logo and name printed on the cylinder match the name on the seal and neck ring.
  • Check the inner side of the cylinder stay plate to see when it's due for its next test to ensure that the date has not elapsed.
  • If the cylinder has a seal that is clear, or a colored seal that merely stated "LP GAS", or it has no seal at all, then it most likely have been illegally refilled or obtained.

The illegal process of trading and refilling gas containers

 
  • When gas containers are illegally refilled by unauthorised people, they do not or may not go through the required strict maintenance or inspection processes to ensure they are still safe for continued use.
 
  • The cylinder and its valves may not be properly connected (sealed) or in a good condition which could cause a gas leak.

 

These unauthorised people may not have the right equipment or training to ensure that the cylinder is filled to 80% capacity which is the standard to allow for expansion of the gas within the cylinder.  So the bottle may be under- or over-filled. If under-filled this violates the Trade Metrology Act and if over-filled this poses a very serious hazard to the consumer.

 

If over filled, the cylinder can loose integrity and release flammable liquids instead of gas, which is very dangerous. The cylinders may bulge, which can cause the cylinder to rupture or burst and create a very dangerous situation. These are all potential deadly cirumstances and are you, as user willing to put your or your family's lives at risk, just for a few rand saving?

Welcome Visitor Nr:

PROVINCIAL AMBULANCE SERVICES

 

The service delivery challenges of the Mpumalanga Provincial Ambulance Services in terms of their Call Centre not answering or the serious delays caused by Ambulance crews not responding in time or "getting lost" because they do not know the area is unfortunately a matter outside the control of local government.

 

Kindly direct all complaints to the Provincial Department of Health Complaints line at 0800 204 098 or to the Presidential hotline at 17737 or email at president@po.gov.za

Vulnerability of Technology

 

The recent power outage in the Victor Khanye Local Municipal area and surrounding areas have exposed a dangerous vulnerability.

 

With the advancements in Technology and the abandonement of old technologies because crime is not being attended to properly, have the cause that almost everything runs from electricity.

 

The prolonged power outage have exposed a serious vulnerability threat in relation to electricity. During this recent prolonged power outage (a few hours short of 24-hours), there were a chain of failures of cellphone and communication towers as the back-up batteries was depleted. With the fibre internet also failing as a result of this, all electronic forms of banking came to a grinding halt.

 

Businesses with generators could keep their doors open for cash clients or those with satellite internet was able to operate semi-normally.

 

But the greatest vulnerability was that communication was totally down. This also caused both the police and emergency management services to become unreacheable unless you drive to them for reporting. We were fortunate that no incidents occurred, but if there was emergencies, help would have been coming late.

 

In terms of Disaster Risk Management this was identified as a risk during the last review, but there were no remedial actions identified to talk to this risk as there are many variables and to add onto this, the loadshedding is not helping the situation.

 

Crime, again, especially copper theft is still contributing towards escalating power outages and outher power reliant infrastructure failures. Government is still turning a blind eye instead of clamping down on this devastating crime. By amending relevant legislation and clamping down on the illegal scrap metal industry that eagerly accept the vandalized and stolen goods, thereby encouraging the escalation of this crime, can assist in reducing infrastructure vandalization.

 

This risk have also been registered as one of the top-five high-impact risks during the current Disaster Management Plan review process.

EXAMPLE OF ILLEGALLY FILLED AND DISTRIBUTED GAS CYLINDER

 

SEAL NOT FROM EASIGAS

EXAMPLES OF LEGALLY FILLED AND DISTRIBUTED GAS CYLINDERS

 

SEAL CORRESPOND TO BRAND OF CYLINDER