A motion to map fire hydrants on an application available to all emergency services, which will change how fires are fought across the city, has been approved.
The motion, put forth by DA councillors Gert Niemand and Suzanne Clarke, was approved at a council meeting on 27 November last year.
Niemand said they put the motion forth given traumatic and devastating fires the city suffers every year where informal housing, dwelling units and business are lost and families and communities negatively affected. A big contributor to the issue is the fact that fire hydrants are not always visible, properly marked or their locations accurately recorded, neither are the coupling points serviced regularly, the councillors wrote in their motion.
Niemand said he picked up on the issue as a founding member of the Region C Sub-Advisory Forum on Disaster management.
“Through the forum we identified the location of fire hydrants are a serious concern, as in many local cases nobody knew where they are.
“This can be blamed both on old infrastructure and ignorance on the residents’ part, but the City of Johannesburg (CoJ) also has a role to play in creating awareness,” he said.
“In many instances, once EMS arrive on scene, they have to spend valuable time and resources locating the nearest fire hydrant instead of battling the fire.
“Emergency personnel regularly come under criticism from communities that they don’t have enough water to extinguish fires; the fact is a fire engine hosts a maximum of 10 000 litres of water, which could run out within 15 minutes of fighting a fire, after which they need the aid of a hydrant.”
There are 41 440 hydrants across the city.
Since the motion has been approved, Joburg Water has started work printing water reticulation plan books for EMS personnel which will assist them in locating the hydrants.
Niemand and Clarke hope that once implemented, this application will reduce problems currently experienced with firefighting in the city.
Their motion requested the following outcomes be met:
• Creating a mobile application which indicates the mapped locations of the entire city’s fire hydrants
• The mobile application development becomes part of the Joburg Smart City innovations.
• The application must include all the functionality including location, maintenance records and link to the city’s geographical information system (GIS).
• All city fire hydrants must remain properly colour-coded and visible.
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