Swift action by members of the Community Emergency Response Service (CERS) saved an Anzac home from utter ruin after a fire broke out on the property on October 5.
CERS is a Brakpan-based volunteer service and a registered non-profit company with the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC).
They are self-funded and dependent on the community and sponsors.
Members were alerted to the blaze at an address along Olga Mitchell Street at 17:13 and responded from their places of employment to CERS headquarters, situated at 75 Taft Avenue.
Louis Pretorius (chief and founder), Michiel Horn (pump operator and co-director) and Japie Bosman (team member and attacking branch man) responded to the scene.
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“We hooked our firefighting trailer unit and left. We arrived minutes later. We found the house on fire with one bedroom fully alight and engulfed by fire from the window to the roof,” said Bosman.
“A scene size-up was conducted and we found that no other people or services were trying to extinguish the fire.
“The size-up indicated all occupants were already out of the building except for two cats.
“Our chief continued with his planning, whilst we continued donning additional protective clothing and prepping our volume water line.
“We attacked the fire head-on through the open window as the aim was to effect a rapid flame knockdown with a simultaneous search and rescue of the missing animals.
“This strategy worked as planned as we managed to contain the fire to just the one engulfed room and prevented fire spread to the rest of the house and the other adjoining house.
“We managed to save one cat, stuck in the house and had visual confirmation that the other one fled from the burning house.
“Sometime later our backup from the Kwa-Thema Fire Department arrived and took over the damping down and ventilation duties.”
Bosman added that CERS make use of a 650lt firefighting trailer unit, towed behind their rapid intervention LDV.
“This trailer unit is on loan from Fireblock. The unit contains 650lt fire retardant gel, which acts as a water multiplying agent – a fire coolant and vapours suppressant,” he said.
“We rely very heavily on this Fireblock product as it provides us with an edge and is a game changer when dealing with Class A fires.”
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The team from CERS have been assisting the community in and around Brakpan for some time now and responds to fires, vehicle rescues and medical calls.
Members operate under the watchful guidance of professionals and veterans in the firefighting, medical, rescue and incident command disciplines. They responded to two incidents before the house fire last week.
On October 3, at 02:00 they received a call about an explosion at the Anzac Substation and upon arrival found only the grass around the power box alight, which they extinguished.
At 22:30 that evening they were called out to a fire along Prince George Avenue. They rushed to the scene and found a public dustbin had been set alight. The small fire was contained and extinguished.
“We all have full-time jobs. We do this for free when we are not at work. We will continue to assist the community and urge residents to save our number for emergencies,” said Bosman.
CERS can be contacted 24 hours a day, seven days a week, at 0800 711 711 (toll-free).
Find them on Facebook (CERS) or visit their gofundme page at https://gogetfunding.com/obtaining-a-combination-mini-fire-rescue-truck/
