City short of fire engines
ALEXANDRA – The few engines available are being shared by various sites within the City, says EMS spokesperson Nana Radebe.
Alexandrians have been warned to be extra careful this festive season regarding fires as the township and nearby Sandton have no resident fire engines.
This warning came from the City of Johannesburg’s Emergency Management Services spokesperson Nana Radebe, in response to complaints from residents who wanted to know why the fire engines had been removed from the township and nearby Sandton.
Radebe said the fire engines had not been removed but that the City was short of fire engines, and the few that were available were being rotated or shared between Alex, Sandton and Randburg.
“One day or so the fire engine is stationed in Alex and them it moves to Sandton and then to Randburg. We share this one fire engine between the three of us but when there is an emergency, some [fire] engines are dispatched from Jeppe and other areas to come and assist,” she said.
Radebe added the fire engine that had been stationed in Alex had broken down and had been in and out of the workshop, while the replacement one had brake problems and it too had been in for repairs.
She said a procurement process was already in place for new fire engines from the United Kingdom but the process took a long time as fire engines sometimes were specifically made to suit the customer’s requirements.
“Fire engines are not like cars that you can just walk into a dealership and come out with one. They have to have the specifications required by that particular customer and in many instances, it means building or rebuilding it from scratch with the customer’s specifications.”
She said the process may further be exacerbated by the outcome of the recent elections. “A new administration has come in and this amounts to starting the procurement process all over again.
“The incoming administration will want us to motivate it [purchasing fire engines] all over again and may also want to have a fresh look at the entire procurement process. This amounts to starting the whole process of procurement afresh,” she said when pressed for timelines of the delivery of the fire engines.
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