After a fire in Van Der Merwe Street, Elsburg last Friday, when a three-year-old boy lost his life, the GCN was contacted by Danie van Wyngaardt, who said he was one of the first people on the scene.
Van Wyngaardt told the GCN he was extremely concerned about the response time of Ekurhuleni Disaster and Emergency Services (DEMS) and claimed that it took about 20 minutes for a fire engine to arrive.
“We could hear the child screaming and couldn’t get to him due to the flames,” van Wyngaardt said.
“Because of the fire department’s slow response, a child lost his life.”
He claimed that a number of people had called various emergency numbers and they’d even asked the traffic department to contact DEMS.
Van Wyngaardt went on to say that when DEMS arrived on the scene, they didn’t conduct themselves in a professional manner.
“They had only one firefighter who was trying to push a big hose through a palisade fence and eventually community members and security company staff, had to help him.
“There was very poor water pressure from the fire engine – and the hose was too short to reach into the house,” he said.
He added that the firefighters didn’t have the correct equipment, the hoses were leaking and had to be patched up and that the firefighters didn’t have smoke masks.
“I’m very unhappy,” he said.
“DEMS should make sure their firefighting crews have all the correct equipment to deal with emergency situations.”
The GCN approached DEMS for comment on the matter and William Ntladi, district manager and media liaison officer for DEMS, gave the following detailed response:
“Ekurhuleni Disaster and Emergency Management Services (DEMS) sympathises with the family for the loss of their baby son’s life, as a result of the fire on January 20.
“DEMS would like to highlight that the call was received and the first turnout crew was from Germiston Central Fire Station, backed up by other stations in their district.
“As per Fire Brigade Operational Procedures, other nearby stations responded immediately to the scene to back each other up; and back-up can be turned back if the magnitude is low.
“In this case, the back-up of two water tankers and major pumpers from Wadeville and Boksburg fire stations, had to be activated to assist at the scene.
Pumpers from the district had all responded by 9.22am and arrived basically at the same time, 13 minutes after receiving the call.
“On reception of the call, it was categorically stated that the house was well alight and one child was trapped inside the house.
“Preliminary investigations on scene, showed that intense heat was inside the room where the child was reported to have been last seen.
“Signs of intense heat were showing already, as the frame structures were bent.
“The integrity of the structure was compromised, which shows that the house had been burning for a long time.
“From the time the first crews arrived on scene, there was no further structural damage to the house as a result of the fire.
“Scene assessment and information seeking is one of the priorities of the first arriving crews on scene.
“The attacking fire engine was parked directly opposite the burning house and attack lines discharged from its pump outlets.
“Operational water pressure was constantly maintained until the last blaze was extinguished.“Professionalism is what was shown on the day, as all necessary resources were brought on to the scene to mitigate – including the chaplaincy section.”
“One is proud to state that the City of Ekurhuleni is in the process of procuring all necessary emergency equipment and vehicles, on an annual basis.
“A new fleet of vehicles and equipment is being brought into the service every year, to beef the existing ones up.
“DEMS would like to highlight and alert members of the public that the life threatening emergency number of the City of Ekurhuleni is (011) 458-0911, which is a direct line to the call centre.
“Other national emergency numbers are 10177 and 112 (from a cellphone) – for which calls are first received by the service providers. In the case of calls made to 10177, they go through to the nearest emergency centre.
“Members of the public are discouraged from using other services’ emergency numbers such as 082 911 and 10111 – which aren’t linked to the municipal call centre – when looking for the fire department, traffic etc.
“The fire hoses are made with canvas material to allow water to seep through the hose body intentionally and with the objective of cooling themselves off, in case they’re dragged over hot spots within burning structures.
“Each and every fire truck is loaded with enough different sized hoses, for different purposes.
“For wild land fires, the hose length is on average 50 feet long (15.24m long) and for fire suppression like those used in this call-out, it’s 100 feet long (30.48m long).
“When operating on site and the hose is too short for the intended length, the second hose is made to couple on to extend the line.
“Each fire station has a major pumper used for structural fires, plus rescue pumpers for specialised rescues including motor vehicle accidents. There are also Grass Unit pumpers, water tankers and hydraulic platforms which are placed strategically, as per operational district.
“The National Fire Protection Association 1041(NFPA-1041) is the international standard of qualification requirements in the fire and emergency industry.
“All firefighters internationally and locally, are being trained under this standard and codes.
“Ekurhuleni Disaster and Emergency Management Services complies with the said standard, when employing firefighters in the service.”
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