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As part of Lumkani’s mission to mitigate the loss of life and property caused by fires in South Africa and across the globe, we implement large scale roll-outs of our fire detection system into urban informal settlements and townships.

Before Lumkani introduced Fire Cover in 2016, there was little hope for households and businesses that had been excluded from insurance cover, to quickly rebuild, refurnish and return to a state of dignity.

The device is a small blue box that measure the rate of temperature rise rather than detecting smoke which helps in reducing false alarms.[5] The network of Lumkani devices in a specific slum uses radio frequency to send text messages and notify people in cases of emergencies. An alarm will be activated in all houses within a 60 metres (200 ft) radius if the initial alarm is not disarmed within 30 seconds.[6][7]

The device detects fires by sensing for a rate of rise of temperature, rather than smoke, which would cause many false alarms. In the event of a fire, the detectors communicate to one another by means of radio frequency (RF) to create a community wide alert – the alert is transmitted to neighbouring detectors within a 60m radius of the fire, giving the community at large the necessary advanced warning to deal with the fire before it becomes unmanageable.

Lumkani is a tech company and social enterprise that delivers insurance services dedicated to customers who suffered loss of property or life following slum fired in South Africa and beyond. The company got its name from local Xhosa language, “lumkani” meaning “be careful”. Their main product is a small blue box fire alarm that responds to a rise in temperature rather than smoke with the aim of decreasing false alarms. Its associated network alerts houses within a 200 foot radius if the alarm is not shut off within 30 seconds. In 2014, the company reported having distributed 7000 of these devices across slums in South Africa, and 5000 in 2015 to its highest fire risk neighborhood in Cape Town.

Funded through a government innovation agency and a successful crowdsourcing campaign, the start-up has also won several awards and grants, including best start-up in 2014's Global Innovation through Science & Technology competition.Last year, it was chosen by the International Red Cross as a provider for its Fire Sensors initiative, a project that has distributed 900 of the devices along with extensive market research.Julie Arrighi, Innovation Advisor at the American Red Cross, said that using networked heat sensors like Lumkani is crucial to mitigating the growing risk of slum fires around the world.

Lumkani is a small fire alarm that registers the rate at which heat rises within a small residence indicating when there might be a fire risk. It then connects with neighboring devices, setting off a chain of alarms so that neighbors can intervene. Newer versions also communicate with home owners via SMS, as well as with local emergency services.