Tackling Fire in Informal Urban Settlements: An Interdisciplinary Approach

Around one billion people across the globe live in shack settlements. Many of these settlements are at constant risk of lethal fires, due to the use of flammable construction materials and contents, open flame lighting, heating and cooking methods, the close proximity of the shacks, and the lack of effective fire services, amongst other factors. Our project focuses on this problem in South Africa (specifically the Cape Town area) where shack fires are an everyday occurrence leading to death and injuries, displacement, and damage to property, possessions, businesses, and communities.

Improving fire safety is extremely difficult in a context where building regulations are largely irrelevant, where residents typically lack available or affordable electricity - forcing them to use candles, stoves or open fires for lighting, heating and cooking - and where socio-legal arrangements discourage the use of more permanent and less flammable construction materials, such as brick. Potential solutions to the problem of informal settlement fires (both in South Africa and elsewhere internationally) must not only be technically sound, but also need to take account of these broader social factors that shape the ways that residents build, maintain, and interact with their built environment.

Our research is unique in its inter-disciplinary scope in that we seek to develop a systematic understanding of both the socio-political and technical factors involved in making informal settlements vulnerable to fire. By compiling existing data, undertaking multi-site surveys, carrying out comparative analysis, and conducting modelling experiments this project will develop grounded, effective solutions.

Our research will assess the effectiveness and practical feasibility of 'technical fixes' like fire retardant paint, smoke alarms, and heat detectors, as well as developing guidelines that communities can use to re-structure their shack settlements to provide effective fire breaks. Being informed by technical best practice and the socio-political realities of life in shack settlements, our findings will enable residents to take action on fire safety and outline where the myriad of actors interested in such issues can most usefully contribute their time, insight, and resources.

Impact - who will benefit?
The aim of this research is to benefit residents of informal settlements by reducing their vulnerability to fire. Our findings and recommendations will be relevant to reducing fire risks in the many informal settlements that exist around the world, and we plan a range of dissemination methods to inform key global actors. However, our primary focus will be to achieve impactful engagement with the following stakeholders in South Africa:

- Community leaders and residents in informal settlements
- Policy-makers in the Western Cape's Departments of Human Settlements, Local Government, and Environmental Affairs and Development Planning
- Fire and Rescue Services and Disaster Risk Management Centres
- NGOs (including their architects and planners) involved in 'reblocking' efforts to upgrade informal settlements
- Manufacturers of relevant building materials and fire safety solutions

Our South African colleagues have good relationships with key policy actors in South Africa (they have carried out studies for Western Cape Disaster Management, and are conducting shack fire tests with the Western Cape Fire & Rescue Services). Meetings have already been held with the fire services chiefs of Cape Town and the Cape Winelands and with some key NGOs. In order to enhance our engagement with potential beneficiaries, both locally and globally, we have established an advisory board.

Advisory Board
Both the conduct of our research and our impact plans will benefit greatly from the input of an advisory board comprising key practitioners. Two formal advisory board meetings will be held (early in the project to seek advice on the research methodology and on-going engagement plans; towards the end of the project to plan the final dissemination effort). However, board members will be kept informed (and their advice sought) by regular email updates and individual meetings during the course of the project. The following have agreed to take on this role (others, not yet identified, may be added at a later stage):
- Rodney Eksteen - Assistant Director, Fire & Rescue Services, Western Cape Department of Local Government
- Jo da Silva - Arup International Development
- John Twigg - Overseas Development Institute, London

Impact - How will they benefit?
In keeping with the inter-disciplinary nature of this project, impact will cover both social and technical aspects of fire safety in informal settlements, and will provide holistic solutions that take account of the linkage between the two. In practical terms, our data collection and analysis will produce the first systematic account of all the factors involved in South African informal settlement fires, and we will draw on our analysis to produce guidelines for practitioners. Impact will be organised around three main outputs, and this information will be made available both locally in South Africa and to potential users in other parts of world with vulnerable informal settlements (and refugee camps):

1. A comprehensive and systematic description of the characteristics of the informal fire settlement problem in South Africa, with specific focus on Cape Town and the Cape Winelands, including analysis of data limitations and recommendations for improving data collection.

2. Technical guidelines to reduce fire risks, including materials, shack design, fire break width, water access, fire extinguisher provision, and the value or not of fire retardant intumescent paint, smoke alarms, heat detectors, etc.

3. Policy recommendations attuned to local economic, social and political conditions for how to implement these technical guidelines in ways that embed material improvements to ensure their persistence, and to build on existing best practices in communities, while seeking meaningful routes to engagement and education.

Further information on the methods for achieving this impact is included in Pathways to Impact.