Joburg Emergency Services are urging residents to use extreme caution while keeping warm as the winter cold bites and more load shedding looms. Temperatures over the city are expected to drop to lows of around three-degrees on Saturday night.
Many people resort to paraffin or wood fires to try and stay warm but this could be a lethal mistake with numerous suffocation or fire deaths reported in recent years.
The national power system will be severely constrained on Saturday between 5pm and 10pm and load shedding could take place during that time.
“Residents of the City of Johannesburg are urged to express extreme caution while using any heating and cooking devices since we are told that the cold front will be upon us throughout the City of Johannesburg. We urge them not to leave any heating devices unattended, things like paraffin stoves, candles, heaters so we can be able to prevent fire incidents over this cold weekend,” says Johannesburg EMS spokesperson Robert Mulaudzi.
