Rock attack knocks out fire services
Primrose emergency services members were dealt a huge blow when their main fire engine was damaged by a community member.
Primrose firefighters and paramedics had just returned from an accident scene in the early hours of last Saturday morning, when they received a huge shock.
A rock-wielding angry member of the community crept up to the large glass roller doors of the Primrose Fire Station and started hurling rocks.
Seven panes of glass were smashed and all three of the fire engines which were parked ready to race off to emergencies were damaged.
Station members chased the man, but he disappeared into the Makause informal settlement.
And now the firefighters are down their most important fire engine.
And, through no fault of their own, they are unable to respond to emergencies using their major pumper, the Scania fire truck, as its windscreen has been badly damaged.
“This vehicle assists a lot with firefighting and now the station’s emergency response time will be impacted, as back-up will have to be called from other stations,” said William Ntladi, district manager media liaison for Ekurhuleni Disaster and Emergency Management Services (DEMS).
Luckily the other two engines, including the station’s tanker, escaped relatively unscathed, with slight body damage.
The drama began when an ambulance crew from Edenvale (all the Primrose paramedics were out on call) transported the 34-year-old community member to the Bertha Gxowa Hospital as he was complaining of abdominal pain, last Friday night.
After he was treated and deemed fit to leave, he allegedly approached ambulance crews asking where they were from.
He confronted two ambulance crews from Primrose and demanded that they take him home to the Makause informal settlement.
“By law ambulance crews cannot take a patient home again, unless the patient is deemed medically unfit to find their own transport home and this has been arranged,” Ntladi said.
“The ambulance crews told the man they couldn’t take him home and he threatened them, saying: ‘You Primrose people will see me later’.”
Firefighters were shaken by the incident and chaplain June Jeffrey, from ESCSA (Emergency Service Chaplains South Africa), has been counselling them.
Jeffrey told the GCN that more and more emergency services members are afraid to come to work, as they are attacked and threatened by members of the community.
Ntladi added that the department condemns this man’s actions to the fullest.
“We can’t have our members afraid to service clients,” he said.
“Another problem resulting from the attack is that the members are now afraid it is going to happen again.
“We have also had to park the fire engines facing inwards, and this seriously compromises our reaction time – this will result in more lives being lost and properties damaged as our response time will be slower.”
The cost of the damage has not been calculated as yet, and Ntladi said they are hoping to get an extra loan vehicle while they wait for the Scania to be repaired.
Ntladi is also afraid this setback will tarnish DEMS’s reputation with the community, as the response rate will be slower.
“Every second counts and now this is impacting on our service,” he explained.
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