Poverty’s terrible toll
Living conditions lead to 99% of child burn incidents
THE CONTRIBUTOR to 99% of all child burn victims admitted to the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital is poverty. The hospital’s medical officer, Dr Roux Martinez, was speaking after being approached regarding the high number of burn fatalities in recent shack fires.
He said that since the hospital’s burn unit opened its doors 40 years ago, they had not seen a change in people’s living conditions.
“Overcrowding, no access to electricity and extremely poor living conditions result in many burn incidents,” she said.
Martinez said that at the hospital, 80% of child admissions were due to hot water burns.
“Hot water burns are a much bigger problem for us than flames. In winter, from April, we experience a 250% increase in patient intake. In December, we get shack fires, and the most prominent cases in those are poor wiring and candles,” she said.
Last month, eight people, among them four minors, died in a massive blaze in the Taiwan informal settlement in Khayelitsha. Four informal structures were destroyed in the fire, which broke out in the early morning.
With winter peaking, the Department of Social Development has urged parents to be cautious.
“We appeal to parents to use extreme caution when having open fires around children,” said Esther Lewis, the department’s head of communications.
Lewis also raised the issue of child neglect. This comes after a Mitchells Plain father was arrested for child neglect. The man’s two daughters, aged seven months and two, were killed in a blaze on Tuesday.
The little girls were left in the wendy house they lived in with an unattended fire. The parents had gone to scout for drugs. The mother is still on the run.
Lewis said: “Please never leave your children unattended with a fire; and to neighbours or family members who are aware of children left unattended, please go to your nearest police station or social development department to report it.”
Colorado Park councillor Joan Woodman said poverty was not always to blame.
“This was a clear case of neglect. They (the parents) got cold and made the fire, and soon afterwards left the children alone. This was a choice that they made” she said.
Kensington councillor Helen Jacobs said a lack of housing was a key contributor to the fires.
“Not everyone has electricity, and the shacks are so close that fire spreads easily. Even with water there is sometimes only one tap shared by six families. In the Kensington/Factreton area there haven’t been housing projects in a while. Housing is a grave concern,” said Jacobs.