http://www.dfwfireandrescue.com/, https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe_8POCcSbGr46NxF_viQizjRg_s7ELyjN5ILaJptLmRS

DFW Fire & Rescue NPC, Sonstraal Road, Paarl (2026)

30/08/2026

🔥 WHAT MATTERED MOST WAS WHAT DID NOT BURN.!!!

Paarl, 30th August 2026

After a serious fire, everybody sees the flames. The smoke. The damaged ground. The blackened vegetation.

Hopefully The fire trucks !.

But sometimes the most important photograph is the one showing something still standing.

A home. A guesthouse. A wine cellar. A thatched roof. A farm building. A business. Something that could very easily have been lost.

That is what fire preparedness is really about.

Not becoming a firefighter. Not taking unnecessary risks.
Not trying to fight a fire that has already become too dangerous.

It is about recognising the problem early.

Raising the alarm quickly. Giving responders the correct location. Knowing what equipment is available. Knowing where the water is.
Knowing how emergency vehicles will enter. Knowing what can safely be switched off. Getting people out.

And, where a fire is still small and conditions allow it, knowing how to act before those first few flames become an uncontrollable incident.

DFW Fire & Rescue has seen the difference that early action can make. We have also seen what happens when precious minutes are lost.

That is why our campaign is called: THE FIRST 10 MINUTES

Because when the smoke eventually clears, the question is not only:

“What burned?”

It should also be:

“WHAT DID WE MANAGE TO SAVE?”

And that begins long before fire season reaches its peak.

Ask yourself another uncomfortable question:

If DFW walked onto your property tomorrow and asked:

“Show us your fire plan.” What would you show us? A file? An extinguisher? A hose?

Or could your people actually explain:

🔥 who raises the alarm
🔥 who calls for help
🔥 how they send the exact location
🔥 who evacuates the building
🔥 where everyone assembles
🔥 who accounts for staff or family
🔥 where emergency vehicles enter
🔥 where your water supply is
🔥 what equipment is available
🔥 and what they will do during those critical first minutes?

A plan should work in real life — not only on paper.

DFW Fire & Rescue can help you find out.

🔥 COME TO DFW HQ

Join us for a focused 30-minute fire-readiness discussion with your family, staff, managers or safety representatives.

🔥 OR ASK DFW TO COME TO YOU

We can visit your farm, estate, home, guesthouse or business, walk through the property with you and identify practical weaknesses before a fire finds them for you.

🔥 NEED PRACTICAL INSTRUCTION?

Talk to us about preparing your people. Where formal accredited training is required, it is delivered through appropriately accredited training partners.

Don't prepare because you are afraid of fire.

Prepare because there are things you cannot afford to lose.

📞 Daan — 084 752 8120
📞 Anthea — 060 526 1068

Or message DFW: FIRST 10 MINUTES with your name, e-mail and location

and we will contact you.

**HELP IS HOP{EFULLY COMING. BE READY BEFORE IT ARRIVES.**

DFW Fire & Rescue NPC
[email protected] 084 752 8120

The First 10 Minutes — Fire Season 2026/27

30/08/2026

Motorvehicle accident leaves drivers and passengers miraculous mostly only slightly injured.

DFW Fire & Rescue NPC FIRST AID responders quickly on scene.

Paarl, 30th Augustus 2026

This afternoon, an elderly couple in their vehicle collided with a young man and his vehicle right at the Engen petrol station opposite Drakenstein Mall lustigan pad Paarl.

2 DFW emergency first aid and fire responder teams arrived within 8 minutes, secured the scene and took care of the patients. Despite the impact, clearly visible on both vehicles, the patients only were bandaged for minor injuries and the Ambulance was cancelled.

Police and towing services arrived later and the vehicles were towed.

The importance of the DFW as a Non Profit and Public Benefit Organisation becomes more and more clear.

These accident responses are done by DFW volunteers, on a Pro Bono bases as long as budget allows.

We thank Ricardo Green, Anthea Carlse and Daan vlb for their adequate assistance..

We wish all involved a speedy full recovery.

DFW Fire&Rescue npc
084 752 8120
[email protected]

Drakenstein Sakekamer Drakenstein Municipality Cape Winelands DM Val de Vie Estate

30/08/2026

Cottage Fire at Historic Estate opposite Drakenstein Prison on Wemmershoek road successfully brought under control.

Paarl, 30th August 2026.

At 03.28 AM the DFW Fire & Rescue NPC received a call from the manager to assist with a structural fire in one of the guest cottages.

The DFW notified Drakenstein Fire via DFW control and simultaneous dispatched a DFW 4X4 heavy duty Pumper/ tanker and crew to their client.

On site already, brave security guards from " Dogs and All" already evacuated the guests and had tried to put the fire out with 2 fire extinguishers, however the attempt was not completely successful.

At the Estate, the fire was contained rather quickly without too much disruption or structural damage, but it was clear that the fire had spread slowly underneath the roof structure and to put it out, Drakenstein Fire brigade opened the roof from the outside to gain access, which was succesfull.

With no further risks or spread or assistance needed, the DFW crew returned back to base, 04.40 AM.

The cause of the roof fire was allegedly a fire through a woodburner stove, causing a chimney to overheat, setting the roof structure alight.

The handling and reporting was done correctly and services responded in numbers to assist.

We thank all who participated.

DFW Fire&Rescue npc
084 752 8120
[email protected]

Paarl Post Standard Bank - South Africa Safequip - Quality Fire Solutions Maroela Media Cape Winelands DM Drakenstein Sakekamer Hakkies Hagendoorn

27/08/2026

Field fire southern Paarl.

The season is started.

27/08/2026

🔥 IT'S 02:13 IN THE MORNING. YOUR PHONE RINGS.!!!

Paarl, 27th August 2026

There is smoke coming from your business. Your night guard is standing outside. Your manager is asleep.

The fire alarm is sounding. And somewhere inside the building, something is burning.

What happens next? Who has already called the fire service?

Has the exact location been sent? Does the person on site know which gate emergency vehicles must use?

Is that gate locked? Where are the keys? Does anyone know whether staff are still inside? Can the electricity be isolated safely?

Where is the gas shut-off? Where is the nearest extinguisher?

And perhaps most importantly:

DOES THE PERSON STANDING THERE KNOW WHAT TO DO — OR ARE THEY WAITING FOR SOMEONE ELSE TO ARRIVE?

This is where emergency planning becomes reality.

Because a fire does not wait for the owner. It does not wait for the safety officer. It does not wait until everybody is awake.

And it certainly does not wait until help arrives.

THE FIRST 10 MINUTES MATTER.

Most businesses have fire extinguishers. Many have evacuation plans. Some have excellent safety files.

But DFW Fire & Rescue is asking a different question:

What happens when the person who normally makes the decisions is not there? Who takes charge at night? Who communicates? Who opens access? Who accounts for staff? Who guides responders to the correct part of the property? Who knows where the dangerous materials are? Who knows where the water is? Who knows when an extinguisher can still be used safely — and when everybody must get out?

A fire plan that only works during office hours is not a complete fire plan.

That is why DFW Fire & Rescue launched:

THE FIRST 10 MINUTES

We are helping businesses, farms, estates, guesthouses and households look at what actually happens before emergency responders arrive.

🔥 COME TO DFW HQ

Join us for a focused 30-minute fire-readiness discussion.

Bring your manager, safety representative, security supervisor or family.

🔥 ASK DFW TO VISIT YOUR PROPERTY

We can walk through the site with you and discuss practical vulnerabilities including:

• emergency access
• night-shift procedures
• communication
• fire equipment
• water availability
• electrical and gas isolation
• evacuation
• assembly points
• emergency contacts
• responder access and directions.

🔥 ARRANGE PRACTICAL PREPARATION

If your staff or family need practical fire-readiness instruction, speak to us. Where formal accredited training is required, this is delivered through appropriately accredited training partners.

Here is tonight's uncomfortable question:

Before you go to sleep, ask yourself:

“If my phone rings at 02:13 and somebody says there is a fire — do the people already there know what to do?”

If the answer is no… or even I'm not sure…then there is work to do.

📞 Daan — 084 752 8120
📞 Anthea — 060 526 1068

Or message DFW 08947528120

FIRST 10 MINUTES, your name and e-mail and address ( a pin )

and we will contact you.

**HELP IS HOPEFULLY COMING. BE READY BEFORE IT ARRIVES.**

DFW Fire & Rescue NPC
084 752 8120
[email protected]

The First 10 Minutes — Fire Season 2026/27

Drakenstein Sakekamer Drakenstein Municipality Maroela Media Paarl Post

27/08/2026

Training day recap, ARE YOU READY?

Paarl, 27th August 2026

Today, ten managers found out what they're actually capable of. 🔥

This morning the DFW HQ at de Leeuwenhof Estate Paarl welcomed the leadership team of one of Paarl's well-known businesses — and what a session it was.

We started the way we always do: not with a lecture, but with a real conversation.
Ten managers, around the table, talking through the things that actually happen on a work floor.

What do you do when a fire starts? When someone is seriously injured? Who do you call — and how do you tell them what they need to know? we showed them practical first aid, how to act if a stroke happens, and a heart attack, how to perform CPR and how to test blood pressure, heartbeat and oxy levels, with tools which should be in every first aid bag of a serious first responder.

Our DFW trainers walked them through real scenarios from years on the road, stabbings, shootings, car accidents and workfloor incidents, and what genuinely worked when it counted.

Then we did the part almost nobody else lets you do.

You can sit through plenty of "safety training." But where else do you actually get your hands on a real fire truck, open up the hose lines, and put out a real fire with a real extinguisher?

Today, every manager did exactly that. You could see it happen in real time — the hesitation falling away, the nervous laughs turning into "I've got this."

Because that's the whole point of what we do at DFW. We're not here to hand out paper. We're here to build the bridge between not knowing and knowing — and to break the one thing that costs lives and businesses the most: the fear of doing something wrong.

Here's the truth we've seen too many times. When disaster strikes, there's almost always someone right there who could have acted — but didn't, because they weren't sure. And in those moments, standing still is the most dangerous choice of all.

Stick to the basics, use your common sense, and act instead of freezing, and an enormous number of incidents stay small incidents.

The first ten minutes belong to whoever is already there. Those minutes decide everything that follows — often for hours afterward.

Today, ten more people walked away ready to own those minutes. 👏

To every business and farm in the Winelands: this is what your team could be doing too.

👉 WhatsApp READY to 084 752 8120 with your name, e-mail and business/farm name, and we'll confirm a date by mail.
🗓 Groups of 10–25 · R950 p/p, fully inclusive (coffee & tea, first aid, active fire, pizza lunch) · your date, through to end of October.

Don't wait for the disaster to find out what your team can do. Build it now — in the first ten minutes.

DFW Fire & Rescue NPC
📞 084 752 8120 · ✉️ [email protected] · 🌐 www.dfwfireandrescue.com

26/08/2026

We are preparing ourselves to assist.

25/08/2026

🔥 THE FIRST 10 MINUTES — WOULD YOUR PEOPLE KNOW WHAT TO DO?

Paarl, 25th August 2026.

A fire extinguisher on the wall does not make a building fire-ready.
A hose reel does not make a business fire-ready.
A safety file in an office does not make your staff fire-ready.

So this morning, ask yourself a few uncomfortable questions.

If a fire starts on your property TODAY…Who notices it first?

Who raises the alarm? Who calls for help?
Does that person know the correct emergency number?
Can they send an exact location?
Who opens the gate for responding vehicles?
Who switches off the electricity or gas — if it is safe to do so?
Who starts the evacuation?
Who checks that everybody is accounted for?
And if it is still safe to intervene…

Who actually knows how to use the extinguisher? Not who has watched somebody else use one. Not who remembers something from years ago. Who can confidently pick it up, operate it and make the correct decision under pressure?

Because once there is smoke, heat, noise and panic, everything becomes more difficult!!

That is why DFW Fire & Rescue launched:

THE FIRST 10 MINUTES

We are not asking you to become firefighters.

We are asking you to make sure that the people who are already there when the fire starts know how to react until professional help arrives.

DFW CAN HELP IN THREE SIMPLE WAYS:

🔥 COME TO US

Visit DFW Fire & Rescue HQ in Paarl for a focused 30-minute fire-readiness discussion.

Bring your questions. Bring your family. Bring your managers.

Bring the person responsible for safety at your business.

🔥 WE COME TO YOU

Ask DFW to visit your home, farm, guesthouse, estate or business.

We can walk through the property with you, identify obvious vulnerabilities and discuss:

• access for emergency vehicles
• fire equipment
• water availability
• electrical and gas risks
• evacuation
• night-shift preparedness
• communication
• assembly points
• emergency contacts
• the first actions when something goes wrong.

🔥 GET YOUR PEOPLE PRACTICALLY PREPARED

Where practical instruction or formal training is required, speak to us and we will help you determine the appropriate next step. Formal accredited training, where required, is provided through appropriately accredited training partners.

Here is the challenge:

Walk through your workplace or home today.
Point at the nearest extinguisher.

Then ask someone:
“If there was a fire right now, what would you do?”

Listen carefully to the answer.
It may tell you everything you need to know.

DON'T WAIT FOR THE FIRE TO TEST YOUR PLAN.

📞 Daan — 084 752 8120
📞 Anthea — 060 526 1068

Or message DFW:

FIRST 10 MINUTES, your name and telephone nr and your e-mail.

and we will help you take the next step.

HELP IS HOPEFULLY COMING. BE READY BEFORE IT ARRIVES.

DFW Fire & Rescue NPC
[email protected]
www.dfwfireandrescue.com

The First 10 Minutes — Fire Season 2026/27

Drakenstein Sakekamer Paarl Post Cape Winelands DM

22/08/2026

"THE FIRST 10 MINUTES"

Saterday 22nd August 2026

Fire Season 2026/27 starts now. The temperatures are already climbing. The first fires have already started.

And they are arriving far earlier than we are used to seeing.

So DFW Fire & Rescue is going to start asking some uncomfortable questions. Because when the smoke appears, it is too late to discover that nobody actually knows what to do.

If a fire starts at your home tonight — who takes charge?

Does everyone know where the extinguisher is?

More importantly — has anyone actually used one?

If your kitchen catches fire, do you know when to use an extinguisher, when to use a fire blanket — and when to get out?

If an inverter, electrical board or appliance starts burning, does your family know what not to do?

If you live on an estate, who calls the emergency services?

Who sends the exact location?

Who opens the gate?

Who warns the neighbours?

Who checks that everyone is outside?

Now ask the same questions at work.

If your business catches fire at 02:00 tomorrow morning — is the person on night shift ready?

Does your security guard know the emergency procedure?

Do your employees know where the gas or electricity can be isolated?

Can they use the firefighting equipment hanging on the wall?

Or have they only ever walked past it?

Does your team know where to assemble?

Who checks whether someone is missing?

Who communicates with arriving emergency responders?

And perhaps the most uncomfortable question of all:

Are you relying completely on somebody else arriving in time?

Emergency services are coming.

DFW may be coming.

The municipal fire service may be coming.

But during those first minutes, the people already on the property are the first response.

Those first few decisions can determine whether you are dealing with a small, controllable incident —

or watching your home, business, stock, equipment or livelihood disappear.

THE FIRST 10 MINUTES MATTER.

That is why DFW Fire & Rescue is launching its FIRST 10 MINUTES FIRE-READINESS CAMPAIGN now.

Not in November. Not when the first major fire is burning. Now.

You have three choices:

🔥 COME TO DFW HQ

Bring your family, staff, management team or small group to DFW Fire & Rescue HQ in Paarl for a practical 30-minute fire-readiness talk.

Ask the questions you have always wanted to ask. See the equipment. Understand what happens when a fire starts.

Learn what to do — and just as importantly, what not to do.

🔥 ASK DFW TO COME TO YOU

We will visit your home, farm, estate, guesthouse or business and look at your situation with you.

Where are your risks? Where is your equipment? Can people reach it? Is it suitable? What happens after hours? Who makes the call? Where will a fire appliance enter? Where is your water? What could delay the response?

Sometimes the greatest fire risk is not a missing extinguisher. It is a missing plan!!!!

🔥 ARRANGE PRACTICAL TRAINING

If your family or employees need practical instruction, talk to us.

DFW can assist with practical fire-readiness sessions, whereby you get to put out real fire and treat an injury yourself under guidance, while formal accredited training, where required, is arranged through appropriately accredited training partners.

DO NOT WAIT FOR A FIRE TO DISCOVER YOUR WEAKNESSES.

You insure your buildings. You service your vehicles. You maintain your electrical systems. You lock your doors at night.

Have you prepared the people standing inside your property?

The first fire warnings are already appearing. Make one decision today:

SIGN UP. BOOK A TALK. OR ASK US TO ASSESS YOUR PROPERTY.

📞 Daan: 084 752 8120
📞 Anthea: 060 526 1068

Or simply message DFW:

“FIRST 10 MINUTES” with your name and e-mail and we will contact you.

**HELP IS HOPEFULLY COMING. BE READY BEFORE IT ARRIVES.**

DFW FIRE & RESCUE npc
[email protected]
www.dfwfireandrescue.com

The First 10 Minutes — Fire Season 2026/27 campaign

Paarl Post Drakenstein Sakekamer

21/08/2026

🚨 EMPOWERING COMMUNITIES TO RESPOND WHEN EVERY SECOND COUNTS.

New responders activated.

Paarl, 21 August 2026

A strong community is not one that waits helplessly for assistance. It is one that has people ready to act when an emergency happens.

As part of its community-upliftment programme, DFW Fire & Rescue NPC organised specialised Emergency First Aid Response (EFAR) training for a carefully selected group of Community Emergency Responders from several informal settlements in Drakenstein.

Working with our medical emergency partner, Metro Emergency Medical Services in Paarl, and Mr Terence Klaasen, participants received practical first-response instruction to help them act decisively during fires, injuries and medical emergencies while professional emergency services are on their way.

On completing the training, every responder received a valid departmental certificate and badge. DFW also:

• Supplied fully equipped first-aid bags
• Provided fire extinguishers and PPE
• Arranged transport and the training venue
• Supplied catering during the programme
• Equipped responders with practical, potentially life-saving knowledge

This project has already placed more than 55 trained Community Emergency Responders within local communities—people who live there, understand their neighbourhoods and can provide immediate assistance when minutes matter.

They are now better prepared to:

🔥 Respond to an early-stage fire
🩹 Provide emergency first aid
📞 Raise the alarm and communicate clearly
🧯 Use basic emergency equipment correctly
🤝 Support neighbours until professional help arrives

This is community upliftment with a lasting purpose. It is not simply about handing over equipment—it is about giving people knowledge, confidence and the ability to help protect lives.

DFW Fire & Rescue NPC believes that readiness should reach every part of our community.

More responders.
More knowledge.
More resilient communities.
More to come.

Our sincere appreciation goes to Metro Emergency Medical Services, Mr Terence Klaasen, our trainers, partners and every participant who accepted the responsibility to serve others.

DFW Fire & Rescue NPC
Private response. Public benefit. Proven impact.

📞 084 752 8120
🌐 www.dfwfireandrescue.com

DFW Fire & Rescue NPC

30/08/2026

30/08/2026

30/08/2026

27/08/2026

27/08/2026

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25/08/2026

22/08/2026

21/08/2026

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