Saddened by the devastating Knysna fires last year that gutted scores of homes, a Collegiate Girls’ High School pupil has come up with a solution to help prevent shacks burning down.

Gabriella Mogale, 17, of Welkom, entered her project into the regional Eskom Expo for Young Scientists last year and received a gold medal.

But one of the judges told her to fine-tune the project and come back this year.

“I didn’t really think it would be something big because it was such a simple idea,” Gabriella said.

She will return to the expo this year with an improved solution and model.

The Grade 12 pupil said the problem of people living in shacks and then losing their homes due to fires had been what motivated her.

“I was just watching TV and the Knysna fires were on,” she said.

“I started thinking how nice it would be if someone could actually find a solution for the fires that had been ongoing.”

She said the biggest issue in informal settlements was how a fire would start at one shack and then jump to dozens more.

“And since I had a science project to do I thought to base it on that, but I had no idea that it would turn into something this big.

Read the full story at The Herald Live.