A tale of two cities’ fires

Fires in Johannesburg and Cape Town ring alarm bells. We’ve heard these sounds before.

Three firefighters died during a 2018 blaze at the Bank of Lisbon building in central Johannesburg. In 2015, two firefighters died in the Nedbank Mall inferno in the Joburg CBD.

In the aftermaths, there was uproar about the safety of buildings, fire drills, fire trucks, hydrants, plus the protective gear and working conditions of fire fighters, and much else.

Response to last week’s fire at the Charlotte Maxeke Hospital suggests not much has been learned. Wynand Engelbrecht, chief executive of private company Fire Ops SA, said there were no functional fire hydrants.
There are enough laws and regulations covering all this.

The Occupational Health and Safety Act, and the National Building Regulations and Building Standards Act, for example. Responsibilities are assigned, positions and salaries accepted, but the buck doesn’t stop anywhere.

Johannesburg’s fire-fighting capacity is worse than depicted in the press. In written answers tabled in council on 25 March to questions from me, MMC Mally Mokoena said Johannesburg has seven fire engines, covering 29 fire stations. There are 346 firefighter vacancies.

The hydrant situation is also dire, with fire station staff not knowing the locations of their hydrants. There is fuzziness about when hydrants are inspected. This emerged from written answers tabled in council on 25 November, 2020, to questions by councillor David Hensman.

Questions included: “Does each fire station in Region B … have the necessary Joburg Water reticulation plan [showing the locations of hydrants] covering the areas to be inspected by them?”

MMC Mokoena’s answer: “No. Accessibility of these [hydrant location] plans from Joburg Water remains a challenge. Those made available … are not accurate and clear, making it difficult to rely on them. Hence fire stations rely on their own pre-risk inspections.”

A further answer: “The current shortage of fire engines renders pre-risk hydrant inspections difficult to conduct…”

It’s no surprise there were no functioning hydrants at Charlotte Maxeke. There is scant reassurance on safety standards in Joburg buildings.

For example, although the Bank of Lisbon building was demolished in 2019, we have not been told the fate of other buildings which the provincial government at the time said were in worse condition.

What are those buildings, and what is being done about their safety standards?

According to Gauteng premier David Makhura, foul play is unlikely in the hospital fire. Cape Town is a different story, with one person arrested for arson. Unconfirmed reports said three arsonists started separate fires on Philip Kgosana Drive.

Arson is incompatible with University of Cape Town’s description of this as an “unexpected natural disaster”, which ruined priceless libraries.

While an Economic Freedom Fighters’ Cape Town city councillor thanked the “gods of Afrika” for the destruction of “white establishment”, there was generally praise for the firefighting and relief efforts.

No reports of fire hydrants being out of commission, ala Johannesburg.

Good, efficient governance can make the difference between life and death. And limit arsonists’ damage. Imagine how much worse the Cape destruction could have been with Joburg-style fire engine/hydrant chaos.