Explanation on shortage of fire engines

The DA’s Shadow MMC for Public Safety, councillor Michael Sun, has explained the reason behind the shortage of fire trucks in the greater Fourways area.

This after a house on Lewis Road in Lonehill was on fire and the Randburg Fire Department had to attend to it due to the Lonehill Fire Department responding to a burning tanker which was carrying milk on the N1 South at about the same time.

Sun said he was aware that there was a critical shortage of functioning fire engines across the city. “We know that the city has 104 fire engines. For the last quarter there were 107 breakdowns reported and the average availability of the fire engines is a low 49.88 percent,” he said.

“We know that there are 142 government ambulances in the city and, in the last quarter, there were a massive 263 breakdowns reported and the average availability of the ambulances is at a low of 45.39 percent.

“This means that there is at best, a 50 percent chance that an ambulance or fire engine will arrive at [ an emergerncy] on time and the other 50 percent will probably not arrive at all.”

Sun added that the good news was that the City Council was looking at spending about R187-million on acquiring 29 new emergency and fire rescue vehicles. “This is certainly long overdue and we look forward to seeing the City improving its emergency rescue service to the residents of Johannesburg.”

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