As an early warning system, Lumkani was the Comfortable Home Category winner as an innovation which creates a more liveable and enjoyable internal environment by addressing fire risk.
Lumkani is a low-cost fire detector and integrated service that alerts inhabitants, their neighbours and the local fire station when and where a fire breaks out. The aim to reduce the damage and destruction caused by the rapid spread of informal settlement fires. It uses transmission mechanisms to trigger neighbouring devices within the system up to 100 metres from the source of the fire. In the event of a fire, devices within this range will ring together, creating a community-wide response to the danger. The system can also provide the nearest fire station with the GPS location of the fire, allowing for proactive early response.
Co- founded by Francois Petousis and Samuel Ginsberg in 2013 and later joined by Paul Mesarcik, David Gluckman, Emily Vining and Max Basler, Lumkani is an initiative that seeks to address the challenge of shack/slum fires in urban informal settlements in South Africa and across the globe.
Lumkani detectors have been specifically designed to use heat detection instead of smoke detection to sense fire. As many cooking, lighting and heating methods used by people living in informal settlements produce smoke, Lumkani uses heat detection to accurately measure the incidence of dangerous fires and limit the occurrence of false alarms.
Lumkani aims to create social impact by increasing the safety and security of people living in informal settlements and is committed to continual innovation and inclusive design practices that are driven by testing and feedback.