RS26Gaaheleletter
Emergency Services’ media liaison, Robert Mulaudzi writes:
Emergency Management Services profession all over the world is more dangerous than people realise. Paramedics, fir fighters and all emergency service workers respond to various emergencies every day and these dangers include ambulance crashes, assaults from members of public, hazardous materials exposures, infectious diseases, lower back injuries, hearing loss, stress, long work hours and exposure to extreme temperatures.
We, at the city of Johannesburg emergency services, are not isolated from these attacks. Last year in August one of our fire engines was set alight by angry community members who were protesting about service delivery issues in Mzimhlophe, Soweto. One of the Fire Fighters/EMT was injured in the process while the other crew members were unharmed. Most of the equipment which was worth millions of rands was stolen from the fire engine before they torched it.
In January this year one of our paramedics was held up at gunpoint and robbed while attending to a patient in Yeoville in the early hours of the morning. While the crew was busy treating the patient in the patient compartment of the ambulance, one armed man came from nowhere and pointed the firearm at them and demanded all their belongings, including their wallets and cellphones
Two weeks after that incident two other paramedics were robbed at gunpoint in Hursthill. The paramedics were attending to a patient when they were confronted by five unknown men.The paramedics were forced to flee the scene of an emergency to the Brixton Police Station with the patient on foot, leaving the robbers to take equipment that was inside the ambulance.
This time around a speeding motorist drove over an accident scene and killed one of our paramedics while attending to a patient. It is very disturbing to see an escalation of the numbers of attacks on emergency service personnel.
We have heard and read about a number of incidents where emergency services personnel are attacked in other parts of the country like Khayelitsha, Kwazulu Natal, Ekurhuleni and also outside our country in areas like Chicago and New York City in the United States of America were criminals went into an unattended fire engine and remove all the tyres. It seems like these criminals are really on a mission to intimidate us and to create a spirit of fear when we respond to emergencies.
This is not only a concern to me personally but this concern is shared by other emergency service personnel all over the world. Communities must understand the dangerous situations we face on a daily basis to and from an emergency scene as we render this essential service. So please help us to protect them.
Communities must take charge of their areas and make sure that the criminals are isolated from our communities so that their right of receiving professional healthcare and emergency services is not violated by some criminals who takes advantage of emergency services personnel all over the world.
We as emergency services officials, must also take advantage of each and every opportunity we get to educate our communities about the importance of them protecting us while we do what we do best – saving lives and properties of the citizens of not only South Africa but all over the world.
