Pinetown boasts ‘Toughest fire fighter alive’
Simangele Mbanjwa from the Pinetown Fire Department was crowned the Toughest Fire Fighter Alive 2017 in Germany.
AFTER winning the Toughest Fire Fighter Alive 2017 challenge in Germany, Pinetown firefighter, Simangele Mbanjwa advised other women to remain positive as in life, nothing is impossible.
Simangele grew up in Highflats and started working as a firefighter in 2011 and said it has always been her passion, “since I was young, I dreamt of becoming a firefighter and when I saw a post in the newspaper looking for people, I sent through my application.
“It was not easy as I had to go through a challenging physical test (which many applicants failed), write an exam and then do a medical check-up before training for six months to qualify,” she said.
Although Simangele won the challenge in June, she told the Highway Mail that she still can not believe that she won a world competition, “I am truly humbled.”
She said every year, the department hosts different challenge competitions in each province and the KZN one was the Grinder challenge.
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“We compete through many tough challenges and I was the winner and I had to go through to George to represent KZN and I came second.
“From there nine of us were chosen to represent South Africa in Germany where I was crowned the Toughest Fire Fighter Alive,” said Simangele.
She said her victory lies in the extra hours that she put into training for this challenge.
“Being a firefighter requires one to stay fit which is the reason why when we are on duty, we have to do an hour and 30 minutes training unless we have a busy day.
She added that she sees herself as a station commander in the future, “I know that dream will also come through as I am closer to getting my higher certificate in the Southern African Emergency Services Institute.
Women should believe in themselves
“As women, we should not take ourselves lightly, we should be positive and empower ourselves with knowledge and education. The days of depending on men and men’s jobs are long gone,” she said.
What she loves most about her job is to see that sense of relief in someone’s face after he/she has been rescued. “It could be from a burning building or trapped inside a vehicle.
“The firefighter job is not only to extinguish fire but we also get called to many incidents such as freeing a person trapped in a car wreckage, and to community and pet rescues.
As much as Simangele enjoys her work she said some days are harder than others, “we do experience some horrifying situations, we are humans after all.”
She said the one incident that she will never forget is when they responded to truck accident on N3 just after the Hammarsdale off-ramp.
“Five occupants were pushing a vehicle after it broke down and a truck came through and hit all of them. Body parts were scattered on the road and we had to try put the parts all together away from the road so that other motorists would not witness it,” said Simangele.
She said eThekwini Municipality has measures in place and psychologists available to assist workers to cope with stress and trauma.
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