Ward 93 councillor, Annette Deppe has made major allegations of negligence and a slow response from Emergency Management Services (EMS) in the extinguishing of a fire which broke out in Uniross Batteries situated just off Dytchley Road in Barbeque Downs, Kyalami, at 9pm on 10 May.
The upper level of the warehouse was damaged by the fire, however, the ground floor offices remained intact.
Deppe explained that the owner of the warehouse contacted Midrand Fire Station at 7.50pm, but the truck allegedly took a long time to arrive at the scene. She added that due to the lack of a prompt response by this fire station, the concerned owner then contacted 10111.
“That was when Ivory Park Fire Station was able to attend to the scene… [and] tried to put out the fire until their truck was empty. [They then] had to wait an hour for a water tanker to arrive.”
When the tanker arrived, attempts were again made to extinguish the fire until a Sandton Fire Station truck eventually arrived. “They were able to connect to a nearby fire hydrant and put out the fire,” Deppe explained.
She said there was no excuse for fire stations taking long to respond to call for help.
“As in this case, there was the late arrival of the first truck and there was no key for the fire hydrant. Another concern was that the fire services used the tenant’s ladder, as they did not have one on the Ivory [Park] truck,” she said.
Deppe also alleged that one of the truck’s pumps was not working due to a lack of pressure, and the second fire hydrant was about 250 metres away which meant that they needed to wait for about seven pipes to connect to the hydrant. The pipes also showed signs of leaking and had bad connections, according to Deppe.
EMS spokesperson, Nana Radebe, said the cause of the fire is still unknown and investigations are underway. She added that, fortunately, no one was injured. “It took us about 30 to 40 minutes to arrive at the scene, but it took us about an hour to two hours to extinguish the fire. The reason why Midrand Fire Station could not respond was because their fire engine is broken and had been taken in for repairs,” Radebe explained.
“Emergency calls that we respond to are not area based, so any truck that is available to assist will attend to any scene it is able to attend to. Our primary responsibility is to make sure that the community receives the best service and we strive to make sure that lives and properties are safe from fire-related [incidents].”
On the allegation of the emergency services’ challenge in accessing water to douse the flames, Radebe said there were ‘minor problems’ regarding access to the hydrant.
Deppe added, “It is important for industrial buildings to have fire suppression systems and, clearly, in this case, no inspections were done in this commercial park. I have contacted the communications officer of Region A for a full report on fire safety inspections that were done in the area, with all the names of the buildings.”
Details: EMS call centre 10111.
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Councillor alleges lack of service in fire response
