Councillor alleges lack of service in fire response

A local councillor has made major allegations of negligence and delayed response from Midrand Fire Station in the extinguishing of a fire which broke out at 9pm at Barbeque Downs on 10 May.

The badly damaged warehouse, which is believed to be used by a battery company, is situated just off Dytchley Road in Barbeque Downs and caught fire. Several explosions were heard last night.

Ward councillor, Annette Deppe explained that the unit owner contacted the Midrand Fire Station at 7.50pm but the firemen took a long time to respond to the scene. She added that due to the lack of prompt response from the fire station, the concerned owner opposite the warehouse also tried to help by contacting 10111.

“That was when Ivory Park Fire Station was then able to attend to the scene… [and] tried to put out the fire until their truck was empty. [They then] had to wait an hour for a water tanker to arrive.”

When the tanker arrived, attempts were again made to extinguish the fire until a Sandton Fire Station truck eventually got there. They were able to connect to a nearby fire hydrant and put out the fire, Deppe explained.

She said there was no excuse for fire stations to take long to respond.

“As in this case, there was the late arrival of the first truck and there was no key for the fire hydrant. Another concern was that the fire services used the tenant’s ladder, as they did not have one on the Ivory [Park] truck,” she said.

Deppe also alleged that one of the truck’s pumps was not working due to a lack of pressure, and the second fire hydrant was about 250 metres away which meant that they needed to wait for about seven pipes to connect to the hydrant. The pipes also showed signs of leaking and had bad connections, she claimed.

Emergency Management Services (EMS) spokesperson, Nana Radebe said the cause of the fire is still unknown and investigations are underway. She added that, fortunately, no one was injured.

“It took us about 30 to 40 minutes to arrive to the scene, but it took us about an hour to two hours to extinguish the fire. The reason why Midrand Fire Station could not respond was because their fire engine is broken and has been taken in for repairs,” Radebe explained.

“Emergency calls that we respond to are not area based, so any truck that is available to assist will attend to any scene it is able to attend to. Our primary responsibility is to make sure that the community receives the best service and we strive to make sure that lives and properties are safe from fire-related [incidents].”

On the allegation of the emergency services’ challenge in accessing water to douse the flames, Radebe said there were ‘minor problems’ regarding access to the hydrant. She said they strive to give the best service to the community.

Deppe added, “It is important for industrial buildings to have fire suppression systems and, clearly in this case, no inspections were done in this commercial park. I have contacted the communications officer of Region A for a full report on fire safety inspections that were done in the area, with all the names of the buildings.”

Details: Emergency call centre number 10111.