No fire engine at Kwa-Thema Fire Station
There were no fire engines from the local station available to help with the fire.
Kwa-Thema – Residents living less than 100m from the Kwa-Thema Fire Station had to use buckets to extinguish a blaze on Wednesday night.
“I was awoken by screams from my nieces, who said there was a fire. I could hear the noise from some of my neighbours outside,” explained June Sibande from Motshegoa Street.
One neighbour was already on a phone call to emergency services just before midnight.
“When I called, they took my cellphone number, but they did not call me back, so I wasn’t sure if they were coming,” said Refiloe Rabolou.
That is when some residents decided to walk to the nearby fire station for help.
“When we reached it, the lights inside the building were off, so we shouted for help. A security guard appeared and told us they could not help because there was no fire engine,” she added.
After a while, the security guards called the firefighters to speak to the group.
“We kept asking them how they could help us, but they insisted their hands were tied. We asked them to come with fire extinguishers and offered to transport them to our house so they could put out the fire, but they told us the law doesn’t allow them to do that,” a family member explained.
Realising they would not get any help, the group returned to the scene. The community members used buckets of water and soil to try and extinguish the fire.
“A fire engine showed up eventually, but the flame was already out. This incident is not the first time a fire broke out on this street.
“We also want to know what we should do the next time there is a fire,” added Fihliwe Vilane, a neighbour.
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The Kwa-Thema Fire Station was opened in 2016 and cost the metro R27m. At the time, the community was excited at finally having a fire station in their neighbourhood, but they now fear they can no longer rely on their local fire station for help.
According to William Ntladi, the district manager media liaison of the Emergency Services Disaster and Emergency Management Services (DEMS), while the community members made their way to Kwa-Thema Fire Station, Tsakani firefighters arrived at the scene and extinguished the fire.
Responding to the allegations that the station has no working fire engines, Ntladi said Kwa-Thema Fire Station had no available fire engines because of mechanical breakdowns.
“In accordance with the DEMS operational plan, an average of three fire stations operate together to effect effective service delivery to the communities, so Tsakane Fire Station was activated and Duduza Fire Station was in line as well,” Ntladi explained.
Ntladi said portable fire extinguishers are mainly used for fires in their early stages.
“Following SANS standards, the building is required to have mounted fire appliances at all times for compliance and fire safety purposes,” he added.
He also mentioned that vehicle repairs generally are done efficiently. He then clarified the cause of the delays regarding repairs.
“Some contributing delays in vehicles’ repairs are parts that are internationally manufactured and need importing into the country.
“Third-party insurance also keeps some vehicles out of service longer than predicted, mostly those with accident damage,” he said.
The community members claimed the fire engines have not operated for two years, but Ntladi’s response did not clarify how long the fire engines have been experiencing mechanical breakdowns.
He did not estimate when the fire station might have a working fire engine.
