In the past month and a half residents in the Roodepoort area did not have successful encounters with the City of Johannesburg Emergency Management Services (EMS).
In three separate incidents of fires reported at properties, the nearest fire stations either did not have fire engines available to dispatch to the scene, or the ones that did arrive, did not have properly working equipment.
The new Member of the Mayoral Committee (MMC) for Public Safety, councillor Michael Sun said their department know about the shortage of fire engines and that rectifying this issue is a top priority on his list. He visited the fire engine repair shop on 6 September.
Most of the vehicles in the rescue fleet had been imported, which makes maintaining these vehicles more challenging. Their spare parts need to be imported as well, which takes a while.
The Department of Public Safety is urgently looking to find ways to address the fire engine shortage until the new fleet arrives in April next year.
Sun is urging the community to take hands with the firefighters and paramedics, and work together in times of emergency to ensure they are able to do their job with safety and dignity.
“Firefighting resources in the city are invaluable, and nobody should tolerate vandalism of our life-saving equipment and vehicles,” Sun said.
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