City of Johannesburg Emergency Management Services (EMS) spokesperson, Robert Mulaudzi, trashed allegations of the City of Johannesburg firemen arriving late for a fire in which one person died in Chartwell.
This follows after Fourways Review readers commented on the initial story that there was a delayed response to the fire which broke out just after 7.30pm on 4 June.
According to Mulaudzi, EMS arrived shortly after receiving the call. He explained that questions of response times cropped up after every fire and it was not unusual for community members to question such. “As far as response times goes, we are meeting our expectations,” he said.
He added that the City took two hours to put out the fire, which caused them to believe that the cause of the fire was unusual. He confirmed that the circumstances surrounding the fire were currently being investigated by police.
Douglasdale police spokesperson Warrant Officer Balan Muthan confirmed that a case of murder has been opened and police are investigating.
Emer-G-Med paramedics also attended to the scene of the fire and spokesperson Max Cohen confirmed that the paramedics arrived 30 minutes after the fire department.
Cohen said, “We received the call after the City of Johannesburg Emergency Management Services.”
He explained that paramedics arrived on the scene to find EMS fighting to control the blaze. “By the time firefighters managed to get to the man who was trapped inside, he was already dead,” Cohen said.
