Lumkani started in early 2014 with the idea to reduce the impact of shackfires in urban slum communities.
In November 2014 we rolled out 2000 devices into communities in Cape Town.
Our detectors have been specifically designed to use heat detection instead of smoke detection to sense fire. Many cooking, lighting and heating methods used by people living in informal settlements produce smoke which cause smoke detectors to false alarm. Lumkani devices use rate-of rise of temperature technology to accurately measure the incidence of dangerous fires and limit the occurrence of false alarms.
High housing density, flamable materials, and alternative cooking, heating and lighting methods cause destructive fires which can spread to neighbouring houses very rapidly. In Cape Town in December 2014 there were 8000 recorded fires in informal settlements, in which 20 people died.
All Lumkani fire detectors are networked, so in the event of a fire all devices in surrounding houses will sound an alarm which is different to the house which has the fire. This enables a community wide alert to the danger of a fire and gives people enough time to respond to the danger at the location.
Prototypes from the 1st design, to fire test devices, off tool samples and the final product.
Device installation.
Info sheet provides information on placement in your home, alarm tones, testing and use.
There have been two fires in communities since rolling out our pilot. The 1st fire was stopped before spreading to another house, the 2nd fire was stopped before the fire got out of control, the house and all belongings were saved.
In February we won the first South African round of a competition with Chivas Regal called 'The Venture' whihc is a social enterprise competition. As part of the second round of the competition we are launching an Indiegogo campaign with the goal to put 3000 devices into high fire risk homes across South Africa. When the time comes you will be able to show your support by voting or buying devices.
Our IndieGogo campaign is LIVE!! Follow the link to vote, check out some more info and show some support ^ ^
http://bit.ly/1QeSx9i
http://bit.ly/1QeSx9i
