AWARD YEAR
2015
CATEGORY
Home
GOALS
Peace, Justice & Strong Institutions
KEYWORDS
fire, emergency, slums
COUNTRY
South Africa
DESIGNED BY
Francois Petousis, Max Basler, Samuel Ginsberg, Emily Vining
WEBSITE
http://lumkani.com/
LUMKANI
Lumkani is a low-cost fire detector and alert system for low-income households.
The detectors use heat detection instead of smoke detection to sense fire, since many cooking, lighting and heating methods used by people living in informal settlements produce smoke, and provide the nearest fire station with the GPS location of the fire, allowing for proactive early response. Because the urban informal settlements have a dense nature, there is a risk factor that enables the rapid spread of fires. In order to provide a sufficient early warning; a community-wide alert is required. In the event of a fire, devices within 60-metre radius range will ring together, creating a community-wide response to the danger. This buys time for communities to become proactive in rapidly spreading fire risk situations.