Tinderboxes were the precursors to matches and basically consisted of a box filled with charcloth, possibly some straw and a piece of flint. It gave rise to the English expression when a spontaneous fire broke out: “It went up like a tinder box”.

On Sunday, a fire broke out at the open centre in Hal Far, destroying five tents and the belongings of some 100 immigrants – leaving them ‘temporarily homeless’. Luckily, no one was injured and the blaze was contained before it spread to more tents and wreaked havoc. The Civil Protection Department, who are luckily stationed very close to Tent City, rushed to the scene and controlled the blaze. They truly deserve praise for the damage limitation exercise they carried out.

It stands to reason though, when you have 20 or more people huddled together in a tent – quite obviously made out of flammable materials – the risk of fire will be high. In hindsight, one wonders what would have happened if such a fire had broken out in the hot and dry months when proverbial tinder is in abundant supply in the form of dead grass and shrubbery.

The cause of the blaze has been preliminarily identified as an exploding gas cylinder – it could have been faulty, it could have been exposed to heat or (although highly unlikely) even sabotaged. One is sure that an inquiry will identify exactly what happened in due course. But, the point this newspaper is making is that when there are so many human beings in such a concentrated area, housed in tents made out of flammable materials – fire is an obvious hazard and very clear and present danger. All it takes is a cigarette, an exploding lighter, a carelessly discarded match (or as mentioned hot weather and dry grass) to set off fires.

If one were to look at the Great Fire of London, the major reason for its spread and high death toll was the cramped living quarters, the very close proximity of buildings with flammable roofs and frames, lack of firefighting equipment and obvious lax standards.

Keeping that in mind, it is easy to see that the fire which gutted five tents could have been much worse. It must be said, this was an accident waiting to happen – and happen it did. What, though, can be done to alleviate the danger? It’s already difficult for the people living there to live a normal life – cut out their cigarettes and the facility to cook for themselves and you could be looking at a revolt. Moving them or increasing the area of Tent City does not seem to be an option either. So, the only option left is to make sure the tents are fire proof. Such tents do exist, although they are very expensive as they are at the higher end of the market – also, the availability of such materials in larger marquee-style tents (in such large numbers) might not even be possible.

However, there might be a solution. Two Brits, William Crawford and Peter Brewin, came up with the idea of a building in a bag. The idea is ridiculously simple; a sack of cement-impregnated fabric is all it is. To erect the structure, all you have to do is add water to the bag and inflate it with air. Twelve hours later the Nissen-shaped shelter is dried out and ready for use. The structures will be available in the near future and various aid agencies have literally been hammering down the door to get them. A bag weighing 230 kilogrammes inflates into a shelter with 16 square metres of floor space. Cost is estimated at e1,500. The same-size tent costs about e776. We are sure that in the long run they would work out to be much cheaper than replacing tents due to wear and tear.

The government really should look into this – it has already stated that no price can be placed on human life. This new structure could not only help save lives, but we are sure that it would make the conditions at Hal Far much more bearable.