Centrum Guardian finalist: Meet a brave fire-fighter

In 22 seconds, the roof will cave in. In 18 seconds, the temperature inside the shack will reach 400°C plus.

You don’t have an oxygen mask and there are three people trapped inside the burning structure, calling for help.

What would you do?

Rescuers don’t get to choose.

For her bravery and quick thinking in dealing with a shack fire, Cynthia Maqungu, a reservist fire-fighter for Ekurhuleni Metro Emergency Services, has been selected as a finalist in the 2015 Centrum Guardians campaign.

On Monday, October 28, 2013, at around 8pm, Maqungu, a resident of the Ramaphosa informal settlement, was getting ready for bed when she heard shouts of “fire, fire, fire!”.

By candlelight, she quickly got dressed in her uniform, grabbed her bucket and ran outside. She looked for smoke and ran in that direction.

When she reached the fire, the flames were blazing through several shacks.

“A strong wind was fueling the flames; it was chaos,” said Maqungu.

She asked a bystander to call the emergency services to report the location of the fire and asked them to go and wait for the fire truck on the main road.

Maqungu heard people screaming inside one of the shacks and knew that she had to help.

She pulled down the fence of the shack before reaching the front door and kicking it open.

Confronted by the dark, smoke-filled room, she had to make a split second decision; should she crawl into the room without a self-contained breathing apparatus?

“The shack was full of black smoke and was extremely hot,” she said.

She decided to go in. “I got down on my hands and knees and crawled in.”

She was able to find an adult and two young boys, aged eight and 14, in the far corner of the shack.

“I battled to convince them that I was there to help them.”

They finally agreed to co-operate with her, after which she calmly pulled them along, guiding them through the door.

When they were all outside, they saw that the flames had started covering the roof of the shack.

Maqungu immediately initiated the bucket brigade system to put out the fire. The nearest tap was almost 15m away.

“I asked bystanders to bring water in whichever containers they had – most people used 20 litre buckets.”

They passed the buckets to Maqungu who then doused the flames.

“I was getting very tired – each bucket had weighed around 20kg. It was as if the supply was endless, but I didn’t give up.

“People were shouting that their livelihoods were being destroyed before their very eyes.

“Many people didn’t help, as they assumed the fire department was already on the scene, since I was wearing my uniform.”

When Maqungu felt that the flames were sufficiently extinguished, she left the scene to wait for the aRamaphosa informal settlement to direct them to the fire.rrival of the fire truck.

On arrival, Platoon Commander Hayley Enever found Maqungu waiting at the traffic lights of

Enever said that Maqungu identified herself and told Enever that she was from the PIER (Public Information, Education and Relations) group who were trained to assist in informal settlement emergencies.

At the scene, the platoon found that three shacks had completely burned down and one was still smouldering.

As a result of the bucket brigade system that Maqungu implemented with community members to extinguish the fire, multiple shacks were saved from burning in the vicinity.

One of the adults that Maqungu saved that night was a woman named Maria Shilaluke, a sangoma who consults in the area.

Watch her story:

Vote for Cynthia Maqungu on the Centrum Guardians website.

Centrum Guardians is an initiative that showcases our nation’s multi-disciplinary and high calibre Emergency and Rescue Services to the South African public.

“These amazing true-life rescue stories highlight the fact that rescue personnel devote every ounce of their incredible strength, stamina and energy to saving lives,” said Natasha Macdonald, the Centrum Brand Manager. – @IschkeBoksburg

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