Only you can prevent forest fires

Creative consultancy Animal Farm brewed a clever idea to highlight the plight of the already stretched Fire Department.

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Table Mountain and its forests are destroyed every summer by raging wild fires. Some are natural but many start with a human spark of stupidity or carelessness. Unfortunately the Table Mountain fire department is struggling with a lack of funding and doesn't have the resources to deal with the situation.

Warren Lewis and myself, from creative consultancy, Animal Farm, brewed a clever idea to highlight the plight of the already stretched Fire Department.

The Carpenter's Shop, an NGO setup to teach woodwork skills to the homeless and unemployed, was commissioned to carve 65 fire extinguishers from the invasive alien trees that had been cleared from the Table Mountain National Park. These non-indigenous trees destabilise the environment by absorbing all the water, causing major erosion, sucking up all the light and, worst of all, spreading their seed when they burn, causing even worse seasons in years to come.

The extinguishers were mounted on alien trees throughout the Table Mountain National Park, with a focus on fire hot spots, picnic areas and major walking trails. The purpose was to explain that it is almost impossible to stop a wild fire once it has started. The only way to stop the fires is to prevent them. The instructions on the label are all about how people can prevent fires.

Why didn't we rather install real working fire extinguishers? Firstly, they would get stolen before you could say "Table Mountain National Park," but more seriously, using a fire extinguisher to try put out a wild fire would be about as effective as using a wooden one.

The project was funded by Cape Union Mart, an outdoor clothing manufacturer, and the extinguishers were installed by Chubb Fire, the major fire extinguisher company in Cape Town.

Table Mountain and its forests are destroyed every summer by raging wild fires. Some are natural but many start with a human spark of stupidity or carelessness. Unfortunately the Table Mountain fire department is struggling with a lack of funding and doesn't have the resources to deal with the situation.

Warren Lewis and myself, from creative consultancy, Animal Farm, brewed a clever idea to highlight the plight of the already stretched Fire Department.

The Carpenter's Shop, an NGO setup to teach woodwork skills to the homeless and unemployed, was commissioned to carve 65 fire extinguishers from the invasive alien trees that had been cleared from the Table Mountain National Park. These non-indigenous trees destabilise the environment by absorbing all the water, causing major erosion, sucking up all the light and, worst of all, spreading their seed when they burn, causing even worse seasons in years to come.

The extinguishers were mounted on alien trees throughout the Table Mountain National Park, with a focus on fire hot spots, picnic areas and major walking trails. The purpose was to explain that it is almost impossible to stop a wild fire once it has started. The only way to stop the fires is to prevent them. The instructions on the label are all about how people can prevent fires.

Why didn't we rather install real working fire extinguishers? Firstly, they would get stolen before you could say "Table Mountain National Park," but more seriously, using a fire extinguisher to try put out a wild fire would be about as effective as using a wooden one.

The project was funded by Cape Union Mart, an outdoor clothing manufacturer, and the extinguishers were installed by Chubb Fire, the major fire extinguisher company in Cape Town.

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